The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Autumn arrives today. The Ear thinks Richard Strauss’ poignant orchestral song “September” is perfect for greeting Fall. What music would you choose?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Fall officially arrives today.
The autumnal equinox takes place at 2:50 a.m. CST.
If you listen to Wisconsin Public Radio, it’s a certainty that you will hear music appropriate to the season. WPR does these tie-ins very well and very reliably — even during a pledge drive.
At the top of the list will probably be the “Autumn” section of three violin concertos from the ever popular “The Four Seasons” by the Italian baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi.
But there are lots of others, including late songs, piano sonatas and chamber music by Franz Schubert; slow movements from symphonies by Gustav Mahler; and many of the “autumnal” late works by Johannes Brahms, especially the short piano pieces and chamber music such as the Clarinet Trio, Clarinet Quintet and the two sonatas for clarinet or viola and piano.
Here is a link to a YouTube video with more than two hours of autumn music. You can check out the composers and the pieces, some of which might be new to you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fddGrDV2gw
And if you want less music with some unusual choices, complete with individual performances, try this much shorter compilation:
http://www.classical-music.com/article/best-classical-music-inspired-autumn
Yet this time of year, when the days end earlier and the mornings dawn later, one work in particular gets to The Ear: It is “Four Last Songs” by Richard Strauss (below), one of the great masterpieces of the 20th century.
The second of the four songs is “September” and fits the bill very nicely.
In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear it sung by Renée Fleming, who will perform a recital next spring in Madison at the Wisconsin Union Theater. She is accompanied by the Houston Symphony Orchestra under conductor Christoph Eschenbach.
Here are the lyrics of the poem, in which summertime is the protagonist, by Nobel Prize winner Hermann Hesse:
The garden is in mourning
Cool rain seeps into the flowers.
Summertime shudders,
quietly awaiting his end.
Golden leaf after leaf falls
from the tall acacia tree.
Summer smiles, astonished and feeble,
at his dying dream of a garden.
For just a while he tarries
beside the roses, yearning for repose.
Slowly he closes
his weary eyes.
Is the Ear the only person who wishes that the Madison Symphony Orchestra and maestro John DeMain, who has a gift for finding great young voices, would perform Strauss’ “Four Last Songs” some autumn?
With the right vocal soloist it could make for a memorable season-opening concert.
What music do you identity with the fall season?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: Today, Sept. 22, 2014, is the first day of Fall. So The Ear plays two of Richard Strauss’ “Four Last Songs.” But what would you listen to to mark the coming of Autumn?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is the first day of Fall in the Northern Hemisphere. The Autumn Equinox arrives tonight at 9:29 p.m. CDT.
This year, the timing of the season and the music I recently listened to worked out just perfectly.
Last week, you see, The Ear went to see the film “The Trip to Italy” (below), a sequel with British funnymen Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. It was made by the award-winning director Michael Winterbottom, who also directed the first installment.
I loved the first one, “The Trip,” in 2010. But like so many sequels, this film suffers from self-indulgence. There was too little plot, a lot of impersonations that are not immediately recognizable or entertaining, and the film goes on for too long.
The movie has its enjoyable, entertaining and touching moments. to be sure. But the really outstanding characters in this film are the Italian landscape and Italian cuisine, captured in stunning cinematography.
But, oh, the music! That was the high note, so to speak, for The Ear.
A recurrent theme is from “Four Last Songs” by the Late Romantic Richard Strauss (below, in 1914). It is “Im Abendrot,” and it strikes the right notes, even for The Ear, who not a big voice fan, whether in choral music, opera or Lieder and art songs.
I was thinking of some appropriate music to play for the coming of the new season. There is always “Autumn” from “The Four Seasons” by Antonio Vivaldi or the new “Four Seasons in Buenos Aires” by Astor Piazzolla.
Then there is the late piano music and chamber music of Johannes Brahms, so often and aptly described as “autumnal.” Of course, the symphonies and songs of Gustav Mahler qualify as do many of the songs of Franz Schubert. And there is more, much more.
But this year, perhaps because of personal circumstances and sheer coincidence, anyway I found the Strauss songs — which were composed in 1948, a year before Strauss died at 84 — perfectly appropriate and fitting in mood.
Here are two of them, found on YouTube video and sung by the incomparable soprano Jessye Norman with Kurt Masur conducting the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra on the Philips label.
The first is “In Abendrot” (At Sunset). The poem or text, written by Joseph von Eichendorff — which is translated on the YouTube site if you click on “Show More” – – does not deal with autumn per se, but with loss and death. So the mood is surely autumnal and, I find, deeply moving. And it is a common motif in the film:
And then there is “September” from the poem by Nobel Prize-winning German writer Hermann Hesse.
I hope you enjoy these two songs by Strauss and also find them fitting to the season, just as I hope we have sunny and warm, a long and colorful Fall.
And I would love to know what other music best expresses the new season for you.
Just leave your suggestions, with YouTube links if possible, in the COMMENTS section.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Antonio Vivaldi, Argentina, art songs, Arts, Autumn, Brahms, Buenos Aires, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, Compact Disc, equinox, Four Last Songs, Four Seasons, Franz Schubert, Hermann Hesse, Italy, Jacob Stockinger, Jessye Norman, Johannes Brahms, Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff, Kurt Masur, Late Romantic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, lieder, Madison, Mahler, Michael Winterbottom, Music, Nobel Prize, opera, Piano, Piazzolla, Richard Strauss, Rob Brydon, Romantic, September, songs, Steve Coogan, The Trip, The Trip to Italy, Vivaldi, vocal music, YouTube
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