UMS Concert Program, March 18, 1963: Birgit Nilsson --

Season: Eighty-fourth
Concert: Fifth
Complete Series: 3383
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

1962 Eighty-fourth Season 1963
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Charles A. Sink, President
Lester McCoy, Conductor
Gail W. Rector, Executive Director
Fifth Concert Seventeenth Annual Extra Series
BIRGIT NILSSON
Soprano Leo Taubman at the piano
Monday Evening, March 18, 1963, at 8:30 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
Complete Series 3383
"Divinites du Styx" from Alceste
In dem Schatten meiner Locken
Anakreons Grab
Kennst du das Land
Ich hab' in Penna einen Liebsten wohnen
Zueignung
Freundliche Vision I .
Caecilie
Gluck
Hugo Wolf
Richard Strauss
INTERMISSION
Saf, saf, susa (Sigh, reeds, sigh) Dementen pi Marssnon (Diamond on
March snow) Svarta rosor (Black roses)
Og jeg vil ha mig en hjaertenskjaer (And
I shall have a sweetheart) Jeg elsker dig (I love thee) En svane (My swan)
Mot kveld (Eventide)......
Intet aer som vaentans tider (There
is nothing like springtime) ....
"Pace, pace, mio Dio" from La Forza del destino "Vissi d'arte" from Tosca.....
Sibelius
Grieg
Backer-Gr0ndahl Peterson-Berger
Verdi Puccini
The Steinway is the official piano of the University Musical Society.
A R S
L O N G A
VITA
B R E V I S
PROGRAM NOTES
"Divinites du Styx" from Alceste .... Christoph Gluck
Admctus, King of Pherae, in Thessaly, is at the point of death. The Oracle's prophecy is Riven out by the High Priest to the effect that Admetus must die, unless there be found among his subjects one willing to die in his stead. Alceste, his wife, vows to the gods that she will forfeit her own life in exchange for that of her husband. Love gives her strength for this self-sacrifice.
Four Lieder...........Hugo Wolf
In dem Schatten meiner Locken (In the shade of my locks)
Here is a song full of melodic enchantment and harmonic subtlety. The singer lies beside her sleeping sweetheart. She is impishly tempted to awaken him, partly impelled by affection, but her mother instinct intervenes as she gazes upon him as she would a sleeping child--Shall I wake him Ah, no!
Anakreons Grab (Tomb of Anacreon)
Wolf has set music of sublime tenderness to Goethe's beautiful poem which is a tribute of reverence and love to the Greek poet Anacreon, who is symbolic as the laureate of nature, love, and wine. His tomb is entwined with vines and laurel and is surrounded by roses in bloom.
Kennst du das Land (Knowest thou the land)
This is one of the most popular settings of Goethe's mastcrwork, Mignon. Mignon, who has been abducted from her home in Italy, queries her protector, Wilhelm Meister, if he knows of the land where the oranges grow.
Ich hab' in Penna einen Liebsten wohnen (I have a lover in Penna), from The Italian Songbook
This is the last song in this collection, and it parallels Leporello's Catalog Aria but is sung in the first person. The singer indexes her lovers: one in Penna, another in Maremma, a third in Ancona, a fourth in Viterbo, a fifth in Casentino, another in her home town (unnamed), yet another in Maglione, even four in La Fratta, and ten in Castiglione. The many pauses just before each little climax accents the excitement that builds up to the grand climax of Castiglione, where the voice part ends. The dramatic postlude (in the piano) points out that she really doesn't care for any of her lovers.
Zueignung..........Richard Strauss
Love, thou knowest all my anguish,
As afar from thee I languish
Still though, hearts in absence pine
Thanks be thine.
Once I quaffed the cup o'erflowing
That with freedom light was glowing
Thou didst bless the ruddy wine
Thanks be thine.
Evil bonds were torn asunder
Till I filled with sacred wonder
Holy, holy found thee divine
Thanks be thine
Freundliche Vision........Richard Strauss
Not in slumber did the dream arise But in day's broad light I saw it all ... a sunny house half hid in foliage Full of peace that waited on our coming And I go with him whom I cherish To the peace and the beauty.
Caecilie...........Richard Strauss
If you but knew, sweet, what it is to dream of fond, burning kisses,
. . . your heart would assent.
If you but knew, sweet, the anguish of waking through nights long and lonely
. . . you would come, sweet, to me.
If you but knew, sweet, what living is, in the life-giving breath of God, Lord and
Creator . . . you would dwell, sweet, with me.
Three Songs...........Jean Sibelius
Saf, saf, susa (Sigh, reeds, sigh) Op. 36, No. 4
The rustling rccds and murmuring waves guard a maiden, who, because of the gossip of her young but beautiful love, has drowned herself. Sing her to sleep, little waves. This account of Ingall's death is a dirge in quasi-recitative style, in which anger over her drowning is followed by a sigh in the accompaniment.
Dementen pa Marssnon (Diamond on March snow) Op. 36, No. 6
This song, in strophic form, recounts the tale of a diamond that gazed at the sun from its place in a snowdrift and was melted into a teardrop. The beautiful melody is wedded to a simple accompaniment that is decorated with a little phrase that suggests the sparkle of a snowflake.
Svarta rosor (Black roses) Op. 35, No. 1
One of Sibelius' most popular songs, this tells how one tries to appear to be gay even when sad, for sorrow bears black roses. It contains strange and interesting harmonies that give the song an unusual quality.
Four Songs...........Edvard Grieg
Og jeg vil ha mig en hjaertenskjaer (And I shall have a sweetheart) And I shall have a sweetheart,
and over the dewy fields we shall ride on the beautiful Midsummernight!
Jeg elsker dig (I love thee)
I have no thoughts but owes to thee its being Thou are my world, and all things turn to thee; Deep in my heart with love's devotion seeing, I love thee now, and to eternity.
En svane (My swan)
My swan, my treasure, . . .
with snowy white feather, And yet, when death came . . .
of his songs sang me never he died while singing.
a single measure. Was he only a swan, then
Mot kveld (Eventide).....Agathe Backer-Gr0ndahl
A Norwegian composer-pianist, Backer Gr0ndahl wrote chiefly for piano and voice. She studied in Norway with Kjerulf, in Florence with Hans von Bulow, and in Weimar with Liszt.
Intet aer som vaentans tider (There is
nothing like springtime) . . . Wilhelm Peterson-Berger After three years of study at the Stockholm Conservatory, Peterson-Berger con?tinued his studies in Dresden, where he also taught for two years. He eventually settled in Stockholm as a music critic. He was stage director for the Wagner repertory at the Stockholm Opera and translated into Swedish some of Wagner's literary works. In Sweden he enjoyed a great reputation both as a composer of national music and as a critic.
"Pace, pace mio Dio" from La Forza del destino .... Verdi Leonora's lover, Don Alvaro, has accidentally killed her father and has fled. Her brother, Don Carlos, has sworn to avenge his father's death by killing Alvaro, and Leonora too. For safety, Leonora has fled to a monastery where she is being assigned a hermit's cave nearby. In this area, before being accepted into the hermitage, she prays to God to give her lasting peace, and speaks of her love for her seemingly lost Alvaro.
"Vissi d'arte" from Tosca.......Giacomo Puccini
Tosca has been pleading with the tyrannical Scarpia for the life of her lover. In the "Vissi d'arte" she tells how her life has been devoted to art and to music. What has she done, she asks, that heaven should forsake her The melody is infinitely tender and sympathetic; harmonies in a minor key murmur a soft accompaniment.
1962 UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY PRESENTATIONS 1963
All presentations are at 8:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted.
HILL AUDITORIUM
San Francisco Ballet........Friday, March 22
Program: Variations...........Glazounow
Caprice............von Suppi
Divertissement............Auber
Tickets: $4.00--$3.50--$3.00--$2.25--$1.50
Ann Arbor May Festival
Philadelphia Orchestra in six concerts .... May 9, 10, 11, 12
THURSDAY, MAY 9, 8:30. EUGENE ORMANDY, Conductor; E. POWER BIGGS, Organist. "Music for th Roya! Fireworks" (Handei-Horty); Poulenc's Organ Concerto in G minor; Excerpts from "Lulu" (Berg); and "Organ" Symphony No. 3 in C minor (Saint-Saens).
FRIDAY, MAY 10, 8:30. THOR JOHNSON, Conductor; GRANT JOHANNESEN, Pianist. UNIVERSITY CHORAL UNION, "Te Deum" (Verdi); Variations for Piano and Orchestra (Riegger); "Still Are New Worldi" (Ross Lee Finney), EDWIN G. BURROWS, narrator; "Wanderer" Fantasia (Schubert-Liszt).
SATURDAY, MAY 11, 2:30. WILLIAM SMITH, Conductor. Duet-Concertante for Clarinet and Bassoon (Strauss), Gigliotti and Garfield, soloists; Haydn Variations (Brahms); Fantastic Symphony (Berlioz).
SATURDAY, MAY 11, 8:30. EUGENE ORMANDY, Conductor; ISAAC STERN, Violinist. Mendelssohn and Prokofiev (No. 1) Concertos; Trumpet Voluntary (Purcell), Gilbert Johnson, soloist; and Brahms' Symphony No. 2.
SUNDAY, MAY 12, 2:30. THOR JOHNSON, Conductor. UNIVERSITY CHORAL UNION, Haydn's "Creation." Soloists: ADELE ADDISON, Soprano; JOHN McCOLLUM, Tenor; DONALD BELL, Bass.
SUNDAY, MAY 12, 8:30. EUGENE ORMANDY, Conductor; RUDOLF AND PETER SERKIN. Pianists. Mozart Concerto No. 10 for Two Pianos; Beethoven Concerto No. 4; Mozart "Haffner" Symphony; Buxtehude'i Passacaglia.
Tickets: $4.00--$3.50--$3.00--$2.25--$1.50
RACK HAM AUDITORIUM
Julian Bream, Guitarist and Lutenist . . . (2:30) Sunday, March 31
Program: Works for Lute by Francis Cutting, John Dowland, and William Byrd. Works for Guitar by Henry Purcell, Cimarosa, Bach, Villa-Lobos, and Albeniz.
Tickets: $2.50 and $2.00
Note:--Presentations for the 1963-1964 season will be announced about May 1. Season ticket orders for Choral Union Series, Extra Series, and the new Chamber Arts Series, will be accepted and filed in sequence beginning May 1.
For tickets and information, address: University Musical Society, Burton Memorial Tower