Das Blümlein from Twelve Lieder (Pauline Viardot-Garcia)

Das Blümlein from Twelve Lieder
Music by Pauline Viardot-Garcia, 1821-1910
Poetry by Aleksander Pushkin, 1799-1837
German translation from the Russian by Friedrich von Bodenstedt, 1819-1892
Score source: www.hildegard....
Rachel Velarde, mezzo-soprano
Luis Rodriguez-Morales, piano
Famous in her lifetime as a singer and as a collaborator with Berlioz, Meyerbeer, Gounod, and Massenet, Pauline Viardot-Garcia was also an active composer who published nearly 200 songs between 1841 and 1905. These songs were known and admired by Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Saint-Saëns, and Viardot herself, writing to a friend in 1864, noted, "I believe that I am more proud of the money that my little jottings have brought me than of that which I have earned as a singer." Viardot was fluent in five languages and widely traveled as a result of her singing career, thus her compositions reflect the musical idioms of the countries where she lived and worked.
www.hildegard....
Friedrich von Bodenstedt (translations from Russian to German) was a German author, born in Hanover. He lived and worked in Moscow for approximately ten years prior to returning to Munich and being appointed professor of Slavonic Studies in 1854. He published a volume of poetry under his name, but it has been argued that it was actually a translation of Persian and Azerbaijani poems. Later in his career, he translated the Persian works Hafiz and Omar Kayyam into German.
en.wikipedia.o...
Russia’s most famous poet, Aleksander Pushkin was born into one of Russia’s most famous noble families. Pushkin began writing poetry as a student at the Lyceum at Tsarskoe Selo, a school for aristocratic youth. As a young man, Pushkin was immersed in French poetry and Russian Neoclassicism. His early output was generically diverse and included elegies, songs, and epistles. Pushkin’s most famous poems are decidedly Romantic in their celebration of freedom and defense of personal liberty, but his concise, moderate, and spare style has proven difficult for many critics to categorize. His many narrative poems, epics, and lyrics are mainstays of the Russian literary tradition and widely memorized. His poem Evgeny Onegin (Eugene Onegin), in the form of a verse-novel, is considered his masterpiece and was written over seven years’ time.
www.poetryfoun...
Das Blümlein
Translation by Catherine Sentman Anderson, © 1994, Hildegard Publishing Co.
Im Buche in Blümlein seh’ ich liegen,
vergessen, duftlos und verblüht;
Gedanken wundersame fliegen
mir bei dem Anblick durch’s Gemüth.
Wo blühte sie? Wann und wie lange?
Wer pflückte sie? Durch was bewegt?
In welchem Lenz, an welchem Hange?
Warum war sie hierher gelegt?
Als Zeichen holden Wiederfindens?
Als unheilvoller Trennung Mal?
Oder des seligen Verschwindens
Im dunklen Wald, im stillen Thal?
Und lebt er noch? Lebt sie noch heute?
Wo weilen sie zu dieser Frist?
Oder sind sie des Todes Beute,
verwelkt wie diese Blume ist?
I see a little flower lying in the book,
forgotten, scentless, and faded;
thoughts strangely come to me,
like a glance into the soul.
Where did it bloom? When and how long?
Who picked it? Why so moved?
In what spring, on what hillside?
Why was it laid here?
As an emblem of a pleasing momento?
As a token of a sorrowful parting?
or of the blessed passing
into the dark wood, into the still valley?
Does he still live? Is she still living today?
Where do they tarry through this time?
Or are they death’s booty,
withered as this flower is?
The Women Sing!
A recital honoring the NATS 2020-2021 celebration of women composers.
Presented during the the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Cal Western Region Conference
January 17, 2021
Rachel Velarde, mezzo-soprano
Luis Rodriguez-Morales, piano
Recorded January 9, 2021 at Grand Canyon University, Phoenix, AZ
Videography and editing by Maya James, mayapapayapict...