IAN BOSTRIDGE TENOR BRAD MEHLDAU PIANO - BRAD MEHLDAU - Princeton University ...
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October 22, 2019 at 8:00pm | Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall
IAN BOSTRIDGE TENOR
BRAD MEHLDAU PIANO
BRAD The Folly of Desire
MEHLDAU The Sick Rose—William Blake
(b. 1970) Leda and the Swan—William Butler Yeats
Sonnet 147—William Shakespeare
Sonnet 75—William Shakespeare
Über die Verführung von Engeln—Bertold Brecht
Ganymed—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Ganymede—W.H. Auden
the boys i mean are not refined—e.e. cummings
Excerpt from Sailing to Byzantium—William Butler Yeats
Night II, from The Four Zoas (“The Wail of Enion”)—William Blake
Lullaby—W.H. Auden
INTERMISSION
ROBERT Dein Angesicht, Op. 127, No. 2
SCHUMANN Lehn’ deine Wang’, Op. 142, No. 2
Es leuchtet meine Liebe, Op. 127, No. 3
(1810–1856)
Mein Wagen rollet langsam, Op. 142, No. 4
Dichterliebe, Op. 48
Im wunderschönen Monat Mai
Aus meinen Tränen sprießen
Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne
Wenn ich in deine Augen seh’
Ich will meine Seele tauchen
Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome
Ich grolle nicht
Und wüßten’s die Blumen
Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen
Hör’ ich das Liedchen klingen
Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen
Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen
Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet
Allnächtlich im Traume
Aus alten Märchen winkt es
Die alten, bösen Lieder
Please note: Some of the texts of The Folly of Desire contain explicit, adult language.About the
Program
After seeing each other perform in BRAD MEHLDAU (b. 1970)
Schloss Elmau, Germany, in 2015, the The Folly of Desire
American pianist/composer Brad Mehldau
and British tenor Ian Bostridge met and TACIT CONSENT
quickly professed their admiration for By Brad Mehldau ©2019
each other’s body of work. That chance
run-in resulted in an initial friendly Lovers give themselves in a moment of
correspondence where the two musicians trust—or they dare to take without asking.
discussed everything from their shared The fact that this giving and taking is
love of Lieder to Bach and jazz. This without an established contract—there is
correspondence materialized into a risk—is what gives desire its wings, and
creative spark resulting in a few pieces also makes it potentially transgressive.
that Mehldau wrote specifically with Consent exists ideally, but it is unspoken.
Bostridge in mind. After sharing these This tacit quality of consent makes it
pieces, the two musicians began to discuss downright holy for poets, artists, and
building out this original repertoire into musicians—quiet, untouched by all the
a song cycle revolving around text and prosaic discourse. Desire—unrequited
themes they both wanted to explore. At or consecrated in ecstasy—is a strong
the onset of their discussions Mehldau trope in music, wrapped into the game
brought up his interest in investigating of tonality itself: tension and resolution,
the themes of the modern sinuous nature tension again, and resolution. In its
of human desire as it exists in love and unspoken abstraction, music can trace
adoration. With this agreed central theme lucidly an intimate exchange.
in mind, Mehldau began composing a
set of music with lyrics drawn from the In the initial idea for this song cycle,
poetry of Blake, Yeats, Shakespeare, the order of the songs was to reflect
Goethe, and others. In 2019, Bostridge a spiritual climb from pure lust all the
and Mehldau premiere this new song way to lust-free love. That ascension,
cycle, The Folly of Desire, fittingly paired though, would import a moral message
in a program with Robert Schumann’s into the music: that carnal desire itself
Dichterliebe (“The Poet’s Love”). was base and ignoble, and love free of
desire was the highest achievement. It
was too simple. Music should provoke
more questions, not answer them with
prescriptive finality.
The next thought was to address lust
only and thus confront it directly and
2 | Princeton University ConcertsAbout the Program
unapologetically. Too unapologetically, Romantic Irony as Self-Censure
though—might that serve to celebrate
what one would condemn? Finally, the Heinrich Heine’s title for the collection of
goal was to neither condemn nor sanction, poems that Schumann drew from was Buch
yet still probe the subject without dodging der Lieder—Book of Songs—proclaiming
“should” and “shouldn’t” questions. the quality of song already in the poems.
When Schumann titled his song cycle
A discourse about what may and may Dichterliebe—the “poet’s love”—he
not take place, and an attempt to find effectively returned the authority to the
a provisional consensus, is valuable. first-person protagonist of the poems.
It might focus on just how one defines Authority over himself is the struggle of
consent. There should remain, though, this passionate figure, who is always in
a private space where one can just love danger of drowning in his rapture for a
someone and take without asking. young woman, losing his common sense.
Schumann conveyed masterfully that
This privacy has been a cherished freedom unhinged mental state in his musical
of liberal societies but is under question expression: at turns violent, euphoric,
now. When sex enters the public forum, dreamy, and unreal.
it becomes political, and we speak of a
citizen’s right to privacy. Closely related is Heine’s Romantic irony, as it came to be
freedom of speech. Sexual expression, like known, involved an act of self-censure
speech, often takes place in a relatively from the poet, in which he would assess
anarchic locus in which there are no the folly of his own ardent feeling within
fixed rules and no policing presence the same poem. It might be a painfully
nearby. If someone is asocial—forcing an jarring corrective yet is less destructive
unwelcome sexual advance, or inciting than the folly of losing his wits completely,
violence through speech—the governing obsessively pining for someone he will
body is compelled to paternalistically never possess. Heine’s caustic reawakening
step in, halting the expression. Some to reality is particularly effective in
children are misbehaving, so the whole Schumann’s musical dramaturgy when
classroom will suffer. it is deferred until the end of the poem,
as in IV, “Wenn ich in deine Augen seh’”
This point in history is unique because and VII, “Ich grolle nicht.”
leaders are doing the opposite: they
are goading the anti-social expression In those two settings, Schumann’s gambit
onward. A vote, as an expression of speech, is not to change the musical fabric at
has become a raised middle-finger, a all—making the abrupt mood change of
malevolent gesture. The free-roaming, the text even more tragically apparent
playful kind of anarchy is threatened by understating it. It’s a real German
from the inside. Romantic move—wearing the emotion on
your sleeve and holding it in at the same
princetonuniversityconcerts.org | 3About the Program
time, verklemmt. That kind of narrative his reason: “My reason, the physician to
dissonance also foreshadowed modern my love,/Angry that his prescriptions are
cinematic intentional incongruity—like not kept/Hath left me, and I desperate
when Scorsese sets a violent scene to now approve.” Even as he sees the folly
cheerful doo-wop music. of his desire, he chooses ruin. Here,
self-ironizing doesn’t help, and leads
The perpetrators in the #MeToo accounts to inertia: he perpetually diagnoses
and the Catholic church sanctioned the problem yet never takes the bitter
their actions through willful fantasy, medicine.
essentially lying to themselves, not
unlike the 19th-century personage in If tacit, genuine consent is the holy grail,
Dichterliebe. A measure of Heine-like then its most extreme, violent opposite
self-critical distance might have helped is rape. Yeats’ mythological “Leda and
them avoid a destructive path. Romantic the Swan” is unsettling because it
irony introduced a potential freedom for locates a dark Sublime in Zeus’ brute
writers. They could momentarily escape overpowering of the girl, who, being so
the imposed frame of their narrative. close the god, might have “put on his
Likewise in real life, one might escape the knowledge with his power.” In Brecht’s
fictive story he repeatedly tells himself “Über die Verführung von Engeln” the
about the object of his desire. And who dark humor from this master of satire
knows—if we censure ourselves now has a purpose: Brecht describes the
and then in the polis, we might retain duplicity and self-sanctioning of the
our right to privacy and free speech. rapist-protagonist, who mockingly instructs
the reader how to say or do whatever
The new songs here for male voice and necessary to get what he wants. Here,
piano are an inquiry into the limits of post- the roles are reversed—whereas Zeus
#MeToo Romantic irony. The variables are was the perpetrator, the angel here is
still the same: The subject is in danger the one perpetrated, a sublime figure
of valorizing his desire precisely when whom one may not gaze at directly, even
he should sublimate it. He does not see as he takes him by force—“Doch schau
clearly and commits folly. Yet, some of ihm nicht beim Ficken ins Gesicht.”
this folly he welcomes—he does not
want to see clearly. At what cost though? Goethe’s Ganymed craves the Father:
“Aufwärts an deinen Busen, Alliebender
A few words about the individual poems: Vater.” Zeus is less perpetrator and more
The suitor in Shakespeare’s two sonnets pantheistic ideal—the divine expressed
is perpetually self-aware, a trait Harold in eternal nature, into which Ganymed is
Bloom identified in the Bard’s most received, ecstatically. This spiritualized
famous characters. In Sonnet 147, the Zeus is perhaps less Greek, but otherwise
subject reasons about how he has lost it was always difficult to believe that the
4 | Princeton University ConcertsAbout the Program
youth would be so enchanted as he is from the past in Night II: Self-wisdom may
lifted away—wouldn’t he be terrified, like be had, but “it is bought with the price/
Leda? Ganymed’s Liebeswonne (bliss of Of all that a man hath—his house, his
love) is intertwined with his heilig Gefühl wife, his children.” Both poets write of
(holy feeling). They are both unendliche “Artifice”— be it deceitful in the case of
Schöne— eternally beautiful. The poem Blake or a property of eternity itself for
suggests that spiritual striving and Yeats. The burning thirst is unquenchable,
earthly desire both seek the same thing: be it of flesh or spirit, or finally, both.
to cool our “burning thirst”—“Du kühlst
den brennenden Durst meines Busens.” Auden returns once more for “Lullaby,”
which forms a postlude for the cycle.
What is the nature of that thirst—could “Let the living creature lie,” he writes,
lust then be a kind of holy impulse? Not if of someone who consents to him, and
we understand the Holy to be benevolent. finally, one who is loved and loves without
Desire in itself is blind by nature, never censure: “Mortal, guilty, but to me / The
giving and always seeking to possess. We entirely beautiful.”
would hope that the Godhead would give
us eyes to see our own folly. Yet such a ‘The Folly of Desire’ was co-commissioned
sharp division between holy and carnal by Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Wigmore
can itself become spiritual blindness. It Hall, Stanford Live at Stanford University,
becomes another strategy of denial and and Carnegie Hall.
hidden complicity, of believing what you
want to believe. What else were all those
priests doing? ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810–1856)
Dichterliebe, Op. 48 (1840)
The unsettling suggestion in Auden’s By Peter Laki ©2018
“Ganymede” is that perpetration begets
violence on the one perpetrated—which in “From my great sorrows I make small
turn might continue a cycle. For William songs”—the great German poet Heinrich
Blake, lust and violence are destructive Heine (1797–1856) wrote in one of his
forces beyond our control, omnipresent lyrical poems. Composers seized upon
elements that “shake the mountains,” as those “small songs” while the ink was
e.e. cummings proclaims in his raucous still wet on them. Both form and content
poem here, which yokes the two together seemed to cry out for musical settings:
more viscerally. The prelapsarian innocence Heine used simple four-line stanzas
is gone; Blake’s Rose is sick. Yeats calls with regular rhyme patterns that had
on the holy sages to guide him in Sailing been used in music for a long time. Yet
to Byzantium, for his heart is “sick with underneath this structural simplicity, the
desire/And fastened to a dying animal/It feelings are complex and multi-layered,
knows not what it is.” Blake answers him inviting melody and harmony to amplify
princetonuniversityconcerts.org | 5About the Program
the bittersweet duality of “great sorrows” love “in the wondrous month of May,”
and “small songs.” is tinged with sadness, as we can tell
from the minor-mode harmonies that
In 1828, Schubert had already written open and close the song. (The song ends,
six great Heine songs, included in the amazingly, on an unresolved dissonance
collection known as Schwanengesang left hanging in the air.) After two very
(“Swan Song”). Yet there is no doubt brief numbers—one idyllic, the other
that it was Robert Schumann who gave exuberant—his very happiness causes
Heine his musical voice with a total of the poet to burst into tears in No. 4. Here
38 settings, 16 of which were published and elsewhere in the cycle, the piano
as the cycle Dichterliebe in 1844. This postludes take over to express what
cycle, like many of Schumann’s greatest cannot be put into words. Meditating on
songs, was written in the “year of songs,” the preceding poem and elaborating on
1840, when the composer concentrated its musical material, the postludes add
on Lieder almost exclusively, producing a new dimension to Schumann’s reading
more than seventy in the course of a of Heine’s poetry.
single year.
The erotic mystery of song No. 5 is
Schumann selected the poems of followed by sacred imagery in No. 6.
Dichterliebe from Heine’s collection The solemn octaves in the piano allude
Lyrisches Intermezzo, a volume that to the style of Baroque organ music,
contained 66 poems and was first with a chorale melody in the pedal
published in 1823. (Four additional songs, register. And just as joy can turn into
originally intended to be part of the sorrow at any point, the face of the
cycle, were published separately some Virgin Mary in the church blends with
years after Op. 48.) Schumann made a the countenance of the poet’s beloved—a
special effort to insure the coherence magical transformation accompanied by
of the cycle. This can be seen from the an ever-so-slight slowing down of the
selection of the poems and the careful music, as if the uncanny resemblance
musical planning. The individual songs put the poet-singer in a pensive mood.
traverse many keys, but the succession of
tonalities is always smooth and seamless. No. 7 is the most dramatic song in the
In addition, subtle motivic reminiscences cycle. “I bear no grudge,” the poet sings,
establish links between songs whose but the massive chords and powerful
subjects and moods are related. accents in the music suggest otherwise.
The almost operatic high notes at
One thing all the poems emphasize is the end, expressing deepest despair,
that the joys and sorrows of love are were an afterthought on Schumann’s
always inseparable. Even the very first part, not found in the manuscript: they
song, which tells of the awakening of were probably inserted only during the
6 | Princeton University ConcertsAbout the Program
proofreading process. Immediately narrow and the accompanying harmonies
following, the lovely flowers of No. 8 extremely sparse. At the end of the song,
bring momentary solace to the poet’s the thought of being loved causes the poet
grief, but by the end of the song, his to shed more tears; as earlier in No. 4,
heart is once again “torn asunder” by these must be tears of happiness. But
the cruelty of the lady. the happiness is not to last. In song 14,
the dreams are rosy but flee when the
Images of betrayal and abandonment poet awakens. Heine was famous for his
are now multiplying. The rustic wedding ironic touch, perfectly matched here by
dance in No. 9 is distorted in an almost Schumann’s music: the magic word has
Mahleresque way as the poet watches been forgotten, and the musical phrase
his beloved marry another man. He flees comes to an unexpected, abrupt ending.
into the wilderness in his grief (No. 10); Song 15 is an extended happy dream but
words fail him, and the piano has to finish it, too, falls apart at the very end.
the song alone. No. 11 tries to turn the
situation into a joke: leaving one lover The last song finally lays all dreams to
for another is an “old story,” one that rest, happy and unhappy ones alike. The
we can make light of. But once more, solemn burial of the songs proceeds
everything changes at the end: if that through three stages, in each of which
“old story” happens to you, it will break the same melody is repeated a step
your heart. A series of dark modulations higher. As the poet’s love and pains are
and a slower tempo mark this sudden lowered into the grave, the voice falls
intrusion of tragedy, after which the silent, making way for the longest and
folksy rhythms and clichéd harmonies most expressive of the cycle’s many
of the piano postlude express a forced piano postludes—almost an independent
and exaggerated “happiness.” We dance piano piece in its own right, with exquisite
and laugh, but our heart is broken. The harmonies and a quasi-improvisatory
flowers, which have comforted the poet mood that lingers in our ears long after
once before in No. 8, now speak to him the last chord has faded away.
directly through the incredibly subtle
harmonies of song No. 12, a portrait of
a “sad, pale man” on a “bright summer
morning.”
Songs Nos. 13–15 constitute the cycle’s
“dream sequence.” In each, the world
of dreams is contrasted with reality
in a different way. In No. 13, the tragic
dreams (death and abandonment) almost
make the music freeze: the vocal line is
princetonuniversityconcerts.org | 7About the
Artists
IAN BOSTRIDGE Tenor
Ian Bostridge’s international recital career has taken him to the Salzburg,
Edinburgh, Munich, Vienna, St. Petersburg, Aldeburgh, and Schwarzenberg
Schubertiade Festivals, and to the main stages of Carnegie Hall and the
Teatro alla Scala, Milan. He has held artistic residencies at the Vienna
Konzerthaus and Schwarzenberg Schubertiade (2003/04), a CarteBlanche
series with Thomas Quasthoff at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw (2004/05), a
Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall (2005/06), the Barbican, London (2008),
the Luxembourg Philharmonie (2010/11), the Wigmore Hall (2011/12) and
Hamburg Laeiszhalle (2012/13). In 2018 Ian began an Artistic Residency with
the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the first of its kind for the ensemble.
His recordings have won all the major international record prizes and
been nominated for 15 Grammys. They include Schubert Die schöne
Müllerin with Graham Johnson (Gramophone Award 1996); Tom Rakewell
(The Rake’s Progress) with Sir John Eliot Gardiner (Grammy Award 1999);
and Belmonte with William Christie. Under his exclusive contract with
Warner Classics, recordings included Schubert Lieder and Schumann
Lieder (Gramophone Award 1998), English song and Henze Lieder with
Julius Drake, Britten Our Hunting Fathers with Daniel Harding, Mozart
8 | Princeton University ConcertsAbout the Artists
Idomeneo with Sir Charles Mackerras, Janacek The Diary of One who Disappeared
with Thomas Adès, Schubert with Leif Ove Andsnes, Mitsuko Uchida, and Antonio
Pappano, Noel Coward with Jeffrey Tate, Britten orchestral cycles with the Berlin
Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle, and many others.
He has worked with the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Chicago,
Boston, London, and BBC symphony orchestras, the London, New York, and Los
Angeles philharmonic orchestras and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam under Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Colin
Davis, Sir Andrew Davis, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Riccardo Muti, Mstislav
Rostropovich, Daniel Barenboim, Daniel Harding, and Donald Runnicles. He sang
the world premiere of Henze Opfergang with the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome
under Antonio Pappano.
His operatic appearances have included Lysander (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) for
Opera Australia and at the Edinburgh Festival, Handel Jeptha at the Opéra National
de Paris, Tamino (Die Zauberflöte) and Jupiter (Semele) for English National Opera
and Peter Quint (The Turn of the Screw), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) and Caliban
(Thomas Adès The Tempest) for the Royal Opera.
Recent engagements include his operatic debut at La Scala, Milan as Peter Quint,
an American recital tour of Winterreisse with Thomas Adès, performances of
Hans Zender’s orchestrated version of Schubert’s Winterreise in Taipei, Perth, for
Musikkollegium Winterthur and at New York’s Lincoln Center, Berlioz Les nuits
d’été with the Seattle Symphony and Ludovic Morlot, recital tours to both the East
and West coasts of America, the title role in Handel Jeptha at the Opéra National
de Paris, a residency with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and Britten War
Requiem with the Staatskapelle Berlin and Antonio Pappano.
Highlights of this season include the United States recital tour with jazz pianist
Brad Mehldau, a world premiere of a new commission by Olli Mustonen at the
Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Wigmore Hall, Debussy’s Livre de Baudelaire
orchestrated and conducted by John Adams with the Orchestre Philharmonique
de Radio France, Aschenbach / Death in Venice at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and
Madwoman / Curlew River on tour with the Britten Sinfonia.
He was a fellow in history at Corpus Christi College, Oxford (1992–95) and in 2001 was
elected an honorary fellow of the college. In 2003 he was made an Honorary Doctor of
Music by the University of St. Andrews and in 2010 he was made an honorary fellow
of St John’s College, Oxford. He was made a CBE in the 2004 New Year’s Honors.
In 2014 he was Humanitas Professor of Classical Music at the University of Oxford.
princetonuniversityconcerts.org | 9About the Artists
BRAD MEHLDAU Piano
Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau has recorded and performed extensively since
the early 1990s. Mehldau’s most consistent output over the years has taken
place in the trio format. Starting in 1996, his group released a series of five
records on Warner Bros. entitled The Art of the Trio (recently re-packaged
and re-released as a 5-Disc box set by Nonesuch in late 2011). During that
same period, Mehldau also released a solo piano recording entitled Elegiac
Cycle and a record called Places that included both solo piano and trio
songs. Elegiac Cycle and Places might be called “concept” albums made
up exclusively of original material with central themes that hover over the
compositions. Other Mehldau recordings include Largo, a collaborative
effort with the innovative musician and producer Jon Brion, and Anything
Goes—a trio outing with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jorge Rossy.
His first record for Nonesuch, Brad Mehldau Live in Tokyo, was released
in September 2004. After ten rewarding years with Rossy playing in
Mehldau’s regular trio, drummer Jeff Ballard joined the band in 2005.
10 | Princeton University ConcertsAbout the Artists
The label released its first album from the Brad Mehldau Trio—Day is Done—on
September 27, 2005. In 2012 Nonesuch released an album of original songs from
the Brad Mehldau Trio—Ode—the first from the trio since 2008’s live Village
Vanguard disc and the first studio trio recording since 2005’s Day is Done. Ode went
on to garner a Grammy nomination. Nonesuch released the Brad Mehldau Trio’s
Where Do You Start, a companion disc to the critically acclaimed Ode, in the fall of
2012. Whereas Ode featured 11 songs composed by Mehldau, Where Do You Start
was comprised of interpretations of 10 tunes by other composers, along with one
Mehldau original. In 2013, Mehldau produced and performed on Walking Shadows,
the acclaimed Nonesuch release from Joshua Redman. 2013 also saw a number of
collaborative tours including a duo tour with mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile, piano
duets with Kevin Hays and a new electric project with prodigious drummer Mark
Guiliana entitled “Mehliana.” Mehliana: Taming the Dragon, the debut release by
Mehliana, was released in early 2014. Mehldau’s monumental and ambitious 10
Years Solo Live eight-LP vinyl box set was released to unanimous critical acclaim
on October 16th, 2015 (with CD and digital versions released in November). The set
was culled from 19 live recordings made over a decade of the pianist’s European
solo concerts. In 2016, Nonesuch Records released the Brad Mehldau Trio’s Blues
and Ballads—the ensemble’s first new release since 2012’s Where Do You Start—and
the celebrated debut album of the Joshua Redman/Brad Mehldau Duo, Nearness,
featuring recordings from their 2011 European tour.
After several years of performing live, labelmates mandolinist/singer Chris Thile
and Mehldau released their debut: Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau. 2019 saw the release
of the critically and commercially acclaimed conceptual recording Finding Gabriel
—an album of harmonically rich vocal layers paired with strings, synthesizers, rock
drums, and improvisation—featuring a number of high profile guests including
trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, singer Kurt Elling, singer Becca Stevens, vocalist/
composer Gabriel Kahane, and drummer Mark Guiliana among others.
Mehldau’s musical personality forms a dichotomy. He is first and foremost an
improviser and greatly cherishes the surprise and wonder that can occur from a
spontaneous musical idea that is expressed directly, in real time. But he also has
a deep fascination for the formal architecture of music, and it informs everything
he plays. In his most inspired playing, the actual structure of his musical thought
serves as an expressive device. As he plays, he listens to how ideas unwind, and the
order in which they reveal themselves. Each tune has a strongly felt narrative arch,
whether it expresses itself in a beginning, an end, or something left intentionally
open-ended. The two sides of Mehldau’s personality—the improviser and the
formalist—play off each other, and the effect is often something like controlled chaos.
princetonuniversityconcerts.org | 11About the Artists Mehldau has performed around the world at a steady pace since the mid-1990s, with his trio and as a solo pianist. His performances convey a wide range of expression. There is often an intellectual rigor to the continuous process of abstraction that may take place on a given tune, and a certain density of information. That could be followed by a stripped down, emotionally direct ballad. Mehldau favors juxtaposing extremes. In addition to his trio and solo projects, Mehldau has worked with a number of great jazz musicians, including with saxophonist Joshua Redman’s band for two years, recordings and concerts with Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden and Lee Konitz, and recording as a sideman with the likes of Michael Brecker, Wayne Shorter, John Scofield, and Charles Lloyd. For more than a decade, he has collaborated with several musicians and peers whom he respects greatly, including the guitarists Peter Bernstein and Kurt Rosenwinkel and tenor saxophonist Mark Turner. His music has appeared in several movies, including Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut and Wim Wender’s Million Dollar Hotel. He also composed an original soundtrack for the French film, Ma femme est une actrice. Mehldau composed two new works commissioned by Carnegie Hall for voice and piano, The Blue Estuaries and The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, which were performed in the spring of 2005 with the acclaimed classical soprano, Renée Fleming. These songs were recorded with Fleming and released in 2006 on the Love Sublime record. A 2008 Carnegie Hall commission for a cycle of seven love songs for Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter premiered in 2010. Love Songs, a double album that paired the newly commissioned song cycle, with a selection of French, American, English, and Swedish songs that Mehldau and von Otter performed together, was released in late 2010 on the Naïve label. In 2013, Mehldau premiered and performed Variations on a Melancholy Theme a large format orchestral piece which was performed with both Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Britten Sinfonia. Commissioned by Carnegie Hall, The Royal Conservatory of Music, The National Concert Hall, and Wigmore Hall with the support of André Hoffmann (president of the Fondation Hoffmann) in 2015, Mehldau’s Three Pieces After Bach were inspired by selections from Johann Sebastian Bach’s seminal work, The Well-Tempered Clavier. Mehldau was appointed as curator of an annual four-concert jazz series at London’s prestigious Wigmore Hall during its 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons, with Mehldau appearing in at least two of the four annual concerts. In late January 2010 Carnegie Hall announced the 2010-11 season-long residency by Mehldau as holder of the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair at Carnegie Hall—the first jazz artist to hold this position since it was established in 1995. This concert marks Brad Mehldau’s Princeton University Concerts debut. 12 | Princeton University Concerts
Texts & PLEASE NOTE: The texts
Translations contain explicit, adult language.
BRAD MEHLDAU (b. 1970) A shudder in the loins engenders there
The Folly of Desire The broken wall, the burning roof
and tower
And Agamemnon dead.
The Sick Rose—William Blake Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
O Rose thou art sick. Did she put on his knowledge with
The invisible worm, his power
That flies in the night Before the indifferent beak could
In the howling storm: let her drop?
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy: Sonnet 147—William Shakespeare
And his dark secret love My love is as a fever, longing still
Does thy life destroy. For that which longer nurseth the disease,
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,
Th’ uncertain sickly appetite to please.
Leda and the Swan—William Butler Yeats My reason, the physician to my love,
Angry that his prescriptions are not kept
A sudden blow: the great wings Hath left me, and I desperate now approve,
beating still Desire is death, which physic did except.
Above the staggering girl, her Past cure I am, now reason is past care,
thighs caressed And frantic-mad with evermore unrest,
By the dark webs, her nape caught My thoughts and my discourse
in his bill, as madmen’s are,
He holds her helpless breast upon At random from the truth vainly express’d.
his breast. For I have sworn thee fair and
thought thee bright,
How can those terrified vague fingers push Who art as black as hell, as dark
The feathered glory from her as night.
loosening thighs?
And how can body, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating (please turn the page quietly)
where it lies?
princetonuniversityconcerts.org | 13Texts and Translations Sonnet 75—William Shakespeare So are you to my thoughts as food to life, Or as sweet-season’d showers are to the ground; And for the peace of you I hold such strife, As ‘twixt a miser and his wealth is found. Now proud as an enjoyer and anon Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure, Now counting best to be with you alone, Then better’d that the world may see my pleasure, Sometime all full with feasting on your sight, And by and by clean starved for a look, Possessing or pursuing no delight Save what is had or must from you be took. Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day, Or gluttoning on all, or all away. Über die Verführung von Engeln—Bertold Brecht Engel verführt man gar nicht oder schnell. Verzieh ihn einfach in den Hauseingang Steck ihm die Zunge in den Mund und lang Ihm untern Rock, bis er sich naß macht, stell Ihm das Gesicht zur Wand, heb ihm den Rock Und fick ihn. Stöhnt er irgendwie beklommen Dann halt ihn fest und laß ihn zweimal kommen Sonst hat er dir am Ende einen Schock. Ermahn ihn, dass er gut den Hintern schwenkt Heiß ihn dir ruhig an die Hoden fassen Sag ihm, er darf sich furchtlos fallen lassen Dieweil er zwischen Erd und Himmel hängt – Doch schau ihm nicht beim Ficken ins Gesicht Und seine Flügel, Mensch, zerdrück sie nicht. 14 | Princeton University Concerts
Texts and Translations
Ganymed—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Ganymed —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Translation by Brad Mehldau
Wie im Morgenglanze How in the morning’s radiance
Du rings mich anglühst You, surrounding me, glowing,
Frühling, Geliebter! Springtime, lover!
Mit tausendfacher Liebeswonne With thousandfold bliss of love
Sich an mein Herz drängt Pressing itself onto my heart,
Deiner ewigen Wärme Your eternal warmth
Heilig Gefühl, Divine feeling,
Unendliche Schöne! Endless beauty!
Daß ich dich fassen möchte’ Oh that I could grasp you
In diesen Arm! In this arm!
Ach, an deinem Busen Oh, on your chest
Lieg’ ich, schmachte, I lie, pining,
Und deine Blumen, dein Gras And your flowers, your grass
Drängen sich an mein Herz. Press themselves on my heart.
Du kühlst den brennenden You cool the burning
Durst meines Busens, Thirst in my chest,
Lieblicher Morgenwind! Lovely morning wind!
Ruft drein die Nachtigall There calls the nightingale
Liebend nach mir aus dem Nebeltal. Lovingly to me from the misty valley.
Ich komm’, ich komme! I’m coming, I’m coming!
Wohin? Ach, wohin? To where? oh to where?
Hinauf! Hinauf strebt’s. Up! Upwards it strives.
Es schweben die Wolken The clouds are drifting
Abwärts, die Wolken Downwards, the clouds
Neigen sich der sehnenden Liebe. Incline themselves to my craving love.
Mir! Mir! Me! Me!
In eurem Schosse In your lap
Aufwärts! Upwards!
Umfangend umfangen! Embracing, embraced!
Aufwärts an deinen Busen, upwards on your bosom,
Alliebender Vater! All-loving father!
Ganymede - W.H. Auden
He looked in all His wisdom from the throne It did not work. His conversation bored
Down on that humble boy who kept the sheep, The boy who yawned and whistled and
And sent a dove; the dove returned alone: made faces,
Youth liked the music, but soon fell asleep. And wriggled free from fatherly embraces;
But He had planned such future for the youth: But with the eagle he was always willing
Surely, His duty now was to compel. To go where it suggested, and adored
For later he would come to love the truth, And learnt from it so many ways of killing.
And own his gratitude. His eagle fell.
(please turn the page quietly)
princetonuniversityconcerts.org | 15Texts and Translations
the boys I mean are not refined—e.e. cummings
the boys i mean are not refined they come with girls who bite and buck
they go with girls who buck and bite who cannot read and cannot write
they do not give a fuck for luck who laugh like they would fall apart
they hump them thirteen times a night and masturbate with dynamite
one hangs a hat upon her tit the boys i mean are not refined
one carves a cross on her behind they cannot chat of that and this
they do not give a shit for wit they do not give a fart for art
the boys i mean are not refined they kill like you would take a piss
they speak whatever’s on their mind
they do whatever’s in their pants
the boys i mean are not refined
they shake the mountains when they dance
Excerpt from Sailing to Byzantium—W.B. Yeats
O sages standing in God’s holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.
Night II, from The Four Zoas (“The Wail of Enion”)—William Blake
I am made to sow the thistle for wheat; the nettle for a nourishing dainty
I have planted a false oath in the earth, it has brought forth a Poison Tree
I have chosen the serpent for a counsellor and the dog
For a schoolmaster to my children
I have blotted out from light and living the dove and nightingale
And I have caused the earthworm to beg from door to door
I have taught the thief a secret path into the house of the just
I have taught pale Artifice to spread his nets upon the morning
My heavens are brass, my earth is iron, my moon a clod of clay
My sun a pestilence burning at noon, and a vapour of death in night.
What is the price of Experience? Do men buy it for a song
Or Wisdom for a dance in the street? No—it is bought with the price
Of all that a man hath—his house, his wife, his children.
Wisdom is sold in the desolate market where none come to buy
And in the wither’d field where the farmer ploughs for bread in vain.
16 | Princeton University ConcertsTexts and Translations
Lullaby—W.H. Auden
Lay your sleeping head, my love, Certainty, fidelity
Human on my faithless arm: On the stroke of midnight pass
Time and fevers burn away Like vibrations of a bell
Individual beauty from And fashionable madmen raise
Thoughtful children, and the grave Their pedantic boring cry:
Proves the child ephemeral: Every farthing of the cost.
But in my arms till break of day All the dreaded cards foretell.
Let the living creature lie, Shall be paid, but from this night
Mortal, guilty, but to me Not a whisper, not a thought.
The entirely beautiful. Not a kiss nor look be lost.
Soul and body have no bounds: Beauty, midnight, vision dies:
To lovers as they lie upon Let the winds of dawn that blow
Her tolerant enchanted slope Softly round your dreaming head
In their ordinary swoon, Such a day of welcome show
Grave the vision Venus sends Eye and knocking heart may bless,
Of supernatural sympathy, Find our mortal world enough;
Universal love and hope Noons of dryness find you fed
While an abstract insight wakes By the involuntary powers,
Among the glaciers and the rocks Nights of insult let you pass
The hermit’s carnal ecstasy. Watched by every human love.
CREDITS:
"Lullaby" and “Ganymede” by W.H. Auden, Used by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.
Copyright © 1939, 1940, All rights reserved.
“the boys i mean are not refined”. Copyright © 1935,1963,1991 by the Trustees for the E.E.
Cummings Trust. Copyright © 1978 by George J. Firmage, from Complete Poems: 1904-1962
by E.E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing
Corporation.
“Über die Verführung von Englen” by Bertold Brecht. Bertold Brecht, Werke. Große
kommentierte Berliner und Frankfurter Ausgabe, Berlin und Weimar / Frankfurt am Main
© 1988, 1993. Benutzte mit Genehmigung von Suhrkamp Verlag.
princetonuniversityconcerts.org | 17Texts and Translations ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810–1856) Dein Angesicht Your face Dein Angesicht so lieb und schön, Your face so lovely and fair Das hab ich jüngst im Traum gesehn, Appeared to me in a recent dream, Es ist so mild und engelgleich, So mild, it looks, and angel-like, Und doch so bleich, so schmerzensreich. And yet so pale, so full of pain. Und nur die Lippen, die sind rot; And your lips alone are red; Bald aber küsst sie bleich der Tod. But death shall soon kiss them pale. Erlöschen wird das Himmelslicht, The heavenly light will be extinguished Das aus den frommen Augen bricht. That gleams from your innocent eyes. Lehn’ deine Wang’ Rest your cheek against my cheek Lehn’ deine Wang’ an meine Wang’, Rest your cheek against my cheek, Dann fließen die Tränen zusammen; Together our tears shall flow; Und an mein Herz drück fest dein Herz, And against my heart press firm your heart, Dann schlagen zusammen die Flammen! Together the flames shall leap! Und wenn in die große Flamme fließt And when into that great flame Der Strom von unsern Tränen, Our river of tears shall flow, Und wenn dich mein Arm gewaltig umschließt And when I clasp you wildly in my arms— Sterb ich vor Liebessehnen! I shall die of love’s desire! Es leuchtet meine Liebe The gleam of my love Es leuchtet meine Liebe, The gleam of my love In ihrer dunkeln Pracht, In its dark splendor Wie’n Märchen traurig und trübe, Is like a tale, sad and gloomy, Erzählt in der Sommernacht. Told on a summer night. »Im Zaubergarten wallen In the magic garden wander Zwei Buhlen, stumm und allein; Two lovers, silent and alone; Es singen die Nachtigallen, The nightingales are singing, Es flimmert der Mondenschein. The moon is shimmering. Die Jungfrau steht still wie ein Bildnis, The maiden stands as silent as a picture, Der Ritter vor ihr kniet. The knight kneels down before her. Da kommt der Riese der Wildnis, Suddenly the wild giant appears, Die bange Jungfrau flieht. The frightened maiden flees. Der Ritter sinkt blutend zur Erde, The knight sinks bleeding to the ground, Es stolpert der Riese nach Haus.« The giant stumbles home; Wenn ich begraben werde, And when I’m dead and buried; Dann ist das Märchen aus. This story shall be done. 18 | Princeton University Concerts
Texts and Translations
Mein Wagen rollet langsam My carriage rolls slowly
Mein Wagen rollet langsam My carriage rolls slowly
Durch lustiges Waldesgrün, Through the cheerful green woodlands,
Durch blumige Täler, die zaubrisch Through flowery valleys
Im Sonnenglanze blühn. Magically blooming in sun.
Ich sitze und sinne und träume, I sit and muse and dream,
Und denk an die Liebste mein; And think of my dear love;
Da grüßen drei Schattengestalten Three shadowy forms nod at me
Kopfnickend zum Wagen herein. Through the carriage window.
Sie hüpfen und schneiden Gesichter, They hop and pull faces,
So spöttisch und doch so scheu, So mocking yet so shy,
Und quirlen wie Nebel zusammen, And whirl together like mist
Und kichern und huschen vorbei. And flit chuckling by.
(please turn the page quietly)
princetonuniversityconcerts.org | 19Texts and Translations ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810–1856) Dichterliebe, Op. 48 (1840) A Poet’s Love Texts by Heinrich Heine Im wunderschönen Monat Mai In the wondrously beautiful month of May Im wunderschönen Monat Mai, In the wondrously beautiful month of May, Als alle Knospen sprangen, As all of the buds burst into bloom, Da ist in meinem Herzen It was then that in my heart Die Liebe aufgegangen. Love started to blossom. Im wunderschönen Monat Mai, In the wondrously beautiful month of May, Als alle Vögel sangen, When all the birds were singing, Da hab’ ich ihr gestanden It was then that I confessed Mein Sehnen und Verlangen My desire and longing to her. Aus meinen Tränen sprießen From my tears will spring Aus meinen Tränen sprießen From my tears will spring Viel blühende Blumen hervor, Many blooming flowers. Und meine Seufzer werden And my sighs will become Ein Nachtigallenchor. A chorus of nightingales. Und wenn du mich lieb hast, Kindchen, And if you love me, child, Schenk’ ich dir die Blumen all’, I will give you all of the flowers, Und vor deinem Fenster soll klingen And outside your window shall sound Das Lied der Nachtigall. The song of the nightingale. Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne The Rose, the lily, the dove, the sun Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne, The Rose, the lily, the dove, the sun, Die liebt’ ich einst alle in Liebeswonne. I loved them all once in the spell of love. Ich lieb’ sie nicht mehr, ich liebe alleine I now longer love them, I only love Die Kleine, die Feine, die Reine, die Eine; The small, the fine, the pure, the rare; Sie selber, aller Liebe Wonne, She herself, the most life giving of all loves, Ist Rose und Lilie und Taube und Sonne. Is the rose and lily and dove and sun. 20 | Princeton University Concerts
Texts and Translations
Wenn ich in deine Augen seh’ When I look into your eyes
Wenn ich in deine Augen seh’, When I look into your eyes,
So schwindet all’ mein Leid und Weh; All my pain and despair vanishes;
Doch wenn ich küße deinen Mund, But when I kiss your lips,
So werd’ ich ganz und gar gesund. I then completely healed.
Wenn ich mich lehn’ an deine Brust, When I place my head on your breast,
Kommt’s über mich wie Himmelslust; Heavenly bliss comes over me;
Doch wenn du sprichst: ich liebe dich! But when you say: I love you!
So muß ich weinen bitterlich. I must weep bitterly.
Ich will meine Seele tauchen I want to bathe my soul
Ich will meine Seele tauchen I want to bathe my soul
In den Kelch der Lilie hinein; In the lily’s chalice;
Die Lilie soll klingend hauchen The lily shall ring out
Ein Lied von der Liebsten mein. With a song of my love.
Das Lied soll schauern und beben The song shall tremble and pulse
Wie der Kuß von ihrem Mund, Like the kiss from her lips
Den sie mir einst gegeben That she once gave to me
In wunderbar süßer Stund’. In a wondrous, sweet hour.
Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome In the Rhine, in the holy river
Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome, In the Rhine, in the holy river,
Da spiegelt sich in den Well’n There, reflected in the waves,
Mit seinem großen Dome With its great cathedral,
Das große, heil’ge Köln. The great, holy city of Cologne.
Im Dom da steht ein Bildnis, In the cathedral hangs a picture,
Auf goldnem Leder gemalt; Painted on gilded leather;
In meines Lebens Wildnis Into my life’s wilderness
Hat’s freundlich hineingestrahlt. It has cast its friendly rays.
Es schweben Blumen und Eng’lein Flowers and angels hover
Um unsre liebe Frau; Around our beloved Mother;
Die Augen, die Lippen, die Wänglein, Her eyes, her lips, her cheeks
Die gleichen der Liebsten genau. Are the same image as my love’s.
(please turn the page quietly)
princetonuniversityconcerts.org | 21Texts and Translations Ich grolle nicht I bear no grudge Ich grolle nicht, und wenn das I bear no grudge, even though my Herz auch bricht, heart is breaking, Ewig verlor’nes Lieb! Ich grolle nicht. O eternally lost love! I bear no grudge. Wie du auch strahlst in Diamantenpracht, How you gleam in diamond splendor, Es fällt kein Strahl in deines No ray falls in the night of Herzens Nacht. your heart. Das weiß ich längst. I’ve known that for a long time. Ich sah dich ja im Traume, I saw you in my dreams, Und sah die Nacht in deines And saw the night in your Herzens Raume, heart’s cavity, Und sah die Schlang’, die dir am And saw the serpent that devours Herzen frißt, your heart, Ich sah, mein Lieb, wie sehr du elend bist. I saw, my love, how very miserable you are. Ich grolle nicht. I bear no grudge. Und wüßten’s die Blumen If the little flowers knew Und wüßten’s die Blumen, die kleinen, If the little flowers knew, the little ones, Wie tief verwundet mein Herz, How deeply my heart is wounded, Sie würden mit mir weinen, They would weep with me, Zu heilen meinen Schmerz. To heal my pain. Und wüßten’s die Nachtigallen, If the nightingales knew Wie ich so traurig und krank, How sad and sick I am, Sie ließen fröhlich erschallen They would sing merrily, Erquickenden Gesang. A refreshing song. Und wüßten sie mein Wehe, And if they knew of my pain, Die goldenen Sternelein, Those little golden stars, Sie kämen aus ihrer Höhe, They would come down from on high, Und sprächen Trost mir ein. And comfort me with their words. Sie alle können’s nicht wissen, All of them cannot know, Nur eine kennt meinen Schmerz; Only one knows my pain; Sie hat ja selbst zerrissen, She is the one who tore, Zerrissen mir das Herz. Tore my heart in two. 22 | Princeton University Concerts
Texts and Translations
Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen There is fluting and fiddling
Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen, There is fluting and fiddling,
Trompeten schmettern darein; Trumpets blare;
Da tanzt wohl den Hochzeitsreigen That must be my dearest love
Die Herzallerliebste mein. Dancing at her wedding feast.
Das ist ein Klingen und Dröhnen, There’s ringing and roaring,
Ein Pauken und ein Schalmei’n; Drumming and piping;
Dazwischen schluchzen und stöhnen Interspersed with sobbing and moaning
Die lieblichen Engelein. Are lovely little angels.
Hör’ ich das Liedchen klingen I hear the little song playing
Hör’ ich das Liedchen klingen, I hear the little song playing,
Das einst die Liebste sang, My beloved once sang,
So will mir die Brust zerspringen My heart bursts
Von wildem Schmerzendrang. With the pressure of pain.
Es treibt mich ein dunkles Sehnen A dark longing drives me
Hinauf zur Waldeshöh’, Up to the wooded heights,
Dort löst sich auf in Tränen There dissolved in tears
Mein übergroßes Weh’. Is my overwhelming grief.
Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen A boy loves a girl
Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen, A boy loves a girl
Die hat einen andern erwählt; Who instead chooses another;
Der andre liebt eine andre, The other, in turn loves still another,
Und hat sich mit dieser vermählt. And has married her.
Das Mädchen nimmt aus Ärger The first girl, out of resentment,
Den ersten besten Mann, Takes the first man
Der ihr in den Weg gelaufen; Who crosses her path;
Der Jüngling ist übel dran. The boy is sick with pain.
Es ist eine alte Geschichte, It’s an old story,
Doch bleibt sie immer neu; But it remains eternally new;
Und wem sie just passieret, And he to whom it happens,
Dem bricht das Herz entzwei. It breaks his heart in two.
(please turn the page quietly)
princetonuniversityconcerts.org | 23Texts and Translations Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen On a bright summer morning Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen On a bright summer morning Geh’ ich im Garten herum. I venture into the garden. Es flüstern und sprechen die Blumen, The flowers whisper and talk, Ich aber wandle stumm. But I move about silently. Es flüstern und sprechen die Blumen, The flowers whisper and talk, Und schaun mitleidig mich an: And look at me with pity; „Sei unsrer Schwester nicht böse, “Do not be angry with our sister, Du trauriger blasser Mann.” You sad, pale man.” Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet I wept in my dream Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet, I wept in my dream, Mir träumte, du lägest im Grab. I dreamt you lay in your grave. Ich wachte auf, und die Träne I woke up, and tears Floß noch von der Wange herab. Still flowed over my cheeks. Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet, I wept in my dream, Mir träumt’, du verließest mich. I dreamt you were betrayed. Ich wachte auf, und ich weinte I woke, and I wept Noch lange bitterlich. Long and bitterly. Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet, I wept in my dream, Mir träumte, du wär’st mir noch gut. I dreamt you were still good to me. Ich wachte auf, und noch immer I woke, and still always Strömt meine Tränenflut. Flows my flood of tears. Allnächtlich im Traume Every night in my dreams Allnächtlich im Traume seh’ ich dich Every night in my dreams I see you, Und sehe dich freundlich grüßen, And see your friendly greeting, Und laut aufweinend stürz’ ich mich And loudly weeping, I throw myself Zu deinen süßen Füßen. At your sweet feet. Du siehest mich an wehmütiglich You look at me wistfully, Und schüttelst das blonde Köpfchen; Shaking your blond head; Aus deinen Augen schleichen sich From your eyes trickle Die Perlentränentröpfchen. Teardrops like pearls. Du sagst mir heimlich ein leises Wort You whisper secretly to me a soft word Und gibst mir den Strauß von Zypressen. And give me a wreath of cypress. Ich wache auf, und der Strauß ist fort, I wake up and the wreath is gone, Und ‘s Wort hab’ ich vergessen. And I have forgotten the word. 24 | Princeton University Concerts
Texts and Translations
Aus alten Märchen winkt es From old fairy-tales it beckons
Aus alten Märchen winkt es From old fairy-tales it beckons
Hervor mit weißer Hand, To me with a white hand,
Da singt es und da klingt es There it sings and sounds
Von einem Zauberland; Of a magic land;
Wo bunte Blumen blühen Where bright flowers bloom
Im gold’nen Abendlicht, In golden twilight,
Und lieblich duftend glühen, And lovingly, fragrantly glow
Mit bräutlichem Gesicht; With a bride-like face;
Und grüne Bäume singen And green trees sing
Uralte Melodei’n, Primeval melodies,
Die Lüfte heimlich klingen, Breezes secretly sound,
Und Vögel schmettern drein; And birds tweet in them;
Und Nebelbilder steigen And misty images rise up
Wohl aus der Erd’ hervor, From the very earth,
Und tanzen luft’gen Reigen And dance airy dances
Im wunderlichen Chor; In a fantastic chorus;
Und blaue Funken brennen And blue sparks burn
An jedem Blatt und Reis, On every leaf and twig,
Und rote Lichter rennen And red fires glow
Im irren, wirren Kreis; In eerie, hazy rings;
Und laute Quellen brechen And loud springs gush
Aus wildem Marmorstein. From wild marble cliffs.
Und seltsam in den Bächen And strangely in the streams
Strahlt fort der Widerschein. The reflection shines on.
Ach, könnt’ ich dorthin kommen, Ah, if I could reach that pace,
Und dort mein Herz erfreu’n, And there ease my heart,
Und aller Qual entnommen, And relieve all of my pain,
Und frei und selig sein! And be free and blessed!
Ach! jenes Land der Wonne, Ah! That land of bliss,
Das seh’ ich oft im Traum, I see it often in my dreams,
Doch kommt die Morgensonne, But with the morning sun appears,
Zerfließt’s wie eitel Schaum. It melts like mere foam.
(please turn the page quietly)
princetonuniversityconcerts.org | 25Texts and Translations Die alten, bösen Lieder The old, angry songs Die alten, bösen Lieder, The old, angry songs, Die Träume bös’ und arg, The angry and bitter dreams, Die laßt uns jetzt begraben, Let us now bury them, Holt einen großen Sarg. Bring me a large coffin. Hinein leg’ ich gar manches, I have a great deal to put inside it, Doch sag’ ich noch nicht, was; Though what I won’t yet say; Der Sarg muß sein noch größer, The coffin must be even larger Wie’s Heidelberger Faß. Than the Heidelberg Wine Barrel. Und holt eine Totenbahre And bring me a death-bier Und Bretter fest und dick; Made of boards firm and thick; Auch muß sie sein noch länger, It must be even longer Als wie zu Mainz die Brück’. Than the bridge in Mainz. Und holt mir auch zwölf Riesen, And bring me twelve giants, Die müssen noch stärker sein They must be even stronger Als wie der starke Christoph Than the mighty Saint Christopher. Im Dom zu Köln am Rhein. In the Cathedral in Cologne on the Rhine. Die sollen den Sarg forttragen, They shall carry the coffin away, Und senken ins Meer hinab; And sink it into the sea; Denn solchem großen Sarge For such a large coffin Gebührt ein großes Grab. Deserves a large grave. Wißt ihr, warum der Sarg wohl Do you know why the coffin So groß und schwer mag sein? Must be so large and heavy? Ich senkt’ auch meine Liebe I buried my love Und meinen Schmerz hinein. And my pain inside. 26 | Princeton University Concerts
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