[12/18/2010] "Loose ends": A return visit to "Exsultate, Jubilate" (continued)

Now for our "loose end" bonuses.


FIRST, OUR MOZART BONUS . . .

Seeing the aria "Ruhe sanft" among the Mozart selections on the Schäfer-Abbado CD, I couldn't resist throwing it in. No, it's not among the best performances I've heard, but the piece itself is so transparently, seemingly effortlessly luscious that its power to transport the listener is hard to dim.

MOZART: Zaide, K. 344: "Ruhe sanft, mein holdes Leben"

Rest gently, my dear life.
There, my picture, my picture will I give you.
Look how kindly, how kindly it smiles on you.
Rest gently &c.

You sweet dreams, rock him to sleep,
and according to his wish in the end
let his dearest desires ripen
to complete realization.

Rest gently &c.

Christine Schäfer, soprano; Berlin Philharmonic, Claudio Abbado, cond. DG, recorded September 1997

Okay, sorry, I couldn't help myself. I thought we needed to hear a better performance of "Ruhe sanft." This is the first one I thought of, and I think it'll do.

Lucia Popp, soprano; Vienna Haydn Orchestra, István Kertész, cond. Decca, recorded 1971


. . . AND A STRAUSS BONUS

As long as we're sampling the Schäfer-Abbado Mozart-Strauss disc, it seems a shame not to hear a bit of the Strauss. I like this performance.

R. STRAUSS: "Das Rosenband" ("The Rose Garland"), Op. 36, No. 1

[Original German text by Friedrich Klopstock, English translation by William Mann]

I found her in the shadows one spring,
and twined her with garlands of roses.
She did not feel it, and slept on.

I looked at her; my life clung
to her life with this look.
I felt it though I did not understand.

So I whispered to her tonelessly
and rustled the rose garlands;
then she awoke from sleep.

She looked at me; her life clung
to my life with this look;
and Paradise was all around us.

Christine Schäfer, soprano; Berlin Philharmonic, Claudio Abbado, cond. DG, recorded December 1997


IN TOMORROW SUNDAY CLASSICS POST

"From Russia with love": It's Richter playing Rachmaninoff, and from Stravinsky, halves of two temporarily "lost" recordings make up another whole Firebird.


RETURN TO THE BEGINNING OF THE POST

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