George Hunka

Notes and comment

Category: Music

  • Wallets out

    It is a rare day that I can solicit donations to organizations in both Vienna and Philadelphia, and this is the day.

    The staff of radio klassik Stephansdom.

    Tomorrow, March 13, radio klassik Stephansdom will be holding its second fundraising drive of the year — and this month the theme is spring, the season. The Vienna-based station is going all out tomorrow with special offers and programming (Beethoven’s Pastoral symphony and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring will be shoehorned in there, I’m sure), along with a chance for you to call in to your favorite hosts, not to mention a report from Christoph Wellner and the ongoing success of the campaign. I’ve written about radio klassik Stephansdom before, so I hope you’ll step up and donate here. (Though if you don’t subscribe to international calling or don’t know German, you may want to forego the call-in.)

    The Pen & Pencil Club of Philadelphia.

    Closer to home, the Pen & Pencil Club of Philadelphia, one of the nation’s oldest private press associations, has launched a GoFundMe page to cover a few pressing bills. In addition to this, the Club is seeking new members, and don’t let the fact that you don’t live in Philadelphia deter you — you’ll always be welcome when you drop by the city for a few days and want to enjoy a comfortable, gregarious drink with the gentlepeople of the press. You can donate here and learn more about the club here. I’ve written briefly about the Club before too.

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  • Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen

    Gustav Mahler.

    In a passage that I quoted yesterday from his book Germania, Simon Winder mentions Gustav Mahler’s song “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen” (1901-1902), based on the poem by Friedrich Rückert. He called it “the greatest” of 19th century German songs, “a work of such richness that it can only be listened to under highly controlled circumstances.” He is off by a year or two, but let’s be open-minded. It won’t hurt.

    It would be chary of me not to post it here today, so control (highly) your circumstances and enjoy this 1989 performance of the song by Jessye Norman, accompanied by Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic. The original poem and a translation follows the video.

    Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen
    Friedrich Rückert

    Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen,
    Mit der ich sonst viele Zeit verdorben,
    Sie hat so lange nichts von mir vernommen,
    Sie mag wohl glauben, ich sei gestorben!
    Es ist mir auch gar nichts daran gelegen,
    Ob sie mich für gestorben hält,
    Ich kann auch gar nichts sagen dagegen,
    Denn wirklich bin ich gestorben der Welt.
    Ich bin gestorben dem Weltgetümmel,
    Und ruh’ in einem stillen Gebiet!
    Ich leb’ allein in meinem Himmel,
    In meinem Lieben, in meinem Lied!

    I am lost to the world
    English translation by Richard Stokes

    I am lost to the world
    With which I used to waste much time;
    It has for so long known nothing of me,
    It may well believe that I am dead.
    Nor am I at all concerned
    If it should think that I am dead.
    Nor can I deny it,
    For truly I am dead to the world.
    I am dead to the world’s tumult
    And rest in a quiet realm!
    I live alone in my heaven,
    In my love, in my song!

    Translation © Richard Stokes, author of The Book of Lieder (Faber, 2005)

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  • Dufourt / Nonken

    Hitting the streets tomorrow, Hugues Dufourt: L’Origine du monde, a new album of piano and percussion works by the French composer, is already garnering rave reviews. In the March issue of Gramophone, Arnold Whittall calls the performance of the title work, inspired by Gustave Courbet’s controversial 1866 painting now at the Musée d’Orsay, “an exceptionally assured and spellbinding demonstration of Dufourt’s uncompromising creative ambitions. … While Marilyn Nonken is the tirelessly resourceful pianist throughout, there are also vital contributions from the New York University Contemporary Music Ensemble, conducted by Jonathan Haas.” Andy Hamilton in the British music magazine The Wire called it “a superb release. … In the works assembled here, physicality of performance is inseparable from musical sensuousness.”

    Divine Art’s release completes Marilyn’s informal, indeed unintended, trilogy of spectral music for piano, following her 2005 double-CD Tristan Murail: The Complete Piano Music and her 2012 Voix Voilées (this latter also includes her extraordinary performance of Dufourt’s Erlkönig), all of which garnered top-flight reviews. After all, she did write the book on the subject. The CD booklet contains an excellent essay by Will Mason on this music to get you up to speed, and the album will be available tomorrow on CD from Amazon, as well as streaming on a variety of outlets, including Apple Classical. Bon appétit!

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