Du, Lied aus voller Menschenbrust,
Wärst du nicht, ach, was füllte noch in arger Zeit ein Herz mit Lust?
Justinus Kerner
Thou, song from the fullness of the human breast,
If thou didst not exist, oh, then what
In grave times would fill a heart with joy?
Liederabend – German Art Song Series 2007
Song, one of the oldest forms of musical expression, flourished in Europe during the romantic period in the nineteenth-century. Today in classical music these songs are called "art songs”, and the German art songs are called "Lieder". The increased popularity of piano as a home music-making instrument and the wealth of German romantic poetry during that period contributed to its growth.
Liederabend - Evening of Songs - dates back to this period. Musicians, music lovers and friends would gather at home and one or more singers would sing the songs. Often the composers themselves would accompany the singers at the piano
Artists Platform is introducing Liederabend in its 2007 season. We are presenting five different concert programmes that encompass the breadth and wealth of the German art song. The concerts will showcase Malaysia’s best classical singers.
Programmes
Written Word
1. Das Veilchen (Goethe) Mozart
2. Heidenröslein (Goethe) Schubert
3. Erster Verlust (Goethe) Schubert
4. Erster Verlust (Goethe) Mendelssohn
5. Die Liebende Schreibt (Goethe) Schubert
6. Die Liebende Schreibt (Goethe) Mendelssohn
7. Rastlose Liebe (Goethe) Franz
8. Rastlose Liebe (Goethe) Schubert
INTERVAL
9. Mailied (Goethe) Beethoven
10. Liebeslied (Goethe) Schumann
11. Die Spröde (Goethe) Wolf
12. Die Bekehrte (Goethe) Wolf
13. Wandrers Nachtlied (Goethe) Schubert
14. Wandrers Nachtlied (Goethe) Liszt
15. Gretchen am Spinnrade (Goethe) Wagner
16. Gretchen am Spinnrade (Goethe) Schubert
17. Erlkönig (Goethe) Schubert
Soprano Evelyn Toh
Soprano Tan Sin Sim
Soprano Chia Yee Yean
Tenor Kee Loi Seng
Pianist Kok-Ting Chong
Speaker Dr Volker Wolf
Landscape
To Nature
1. An die Natur (Stolberg) Schubert
2. Wehmut (Collins) Schubert
Water Music
3. Auf dem Wasser zu Singen (Stolberg) Schubert
4. Selige Welt (Senn) Schubert
5. Am Flusse (Goethe) Schubert
6. Der Fluss (Schlegel) Schubert
Nocturne
7. Im Abendroth (Lappe) Schubert
8. An den Mond (Hölty) Schubert
9. Nacht und Träume (Collin) Schubert
10. Die Sterne (Schlegel) Schubert
INTERVAL
To Nature
11. Die Götte Griechenlands (Schiller) Schubert
12. Aufenthalt (Rellstab) Schubert
13. Schäfers Klagelied (Goethe) Schubert
14. Der Musensohn (Goethe) Schubert
To Spring
15. Im Frühling (Schulze) Schubert
16. Frühlingsglaube (Uhland) Mendelssohn
17. Frühlingsnacht (Eichendorff) Schumann
18. Er ist’s (Mörike) Wolf
Soprano Tan Sin Sim
Soprano Evelyn Toh
Tenor Kee Loi Seng
Baritone Jeffery Chew
Pianist Kok-Ting Chong
Speaker Noor Mahnun Mohamed
Letters
Dichterliebe op.48 Robert Schumann
Song cycle after the ‘Buch der Lieder’ by
Heinrich Heine
1. Im wunderschönen Monat Mai
2. Aus meinen Tränen sprießen
3. Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne
4. Wenn ich in deine Augen seh
5. Ich will meine Seele tauchen
6. Im Rhein, im schönen Strome
7. Ich grolle nicht, und wenn das Herz auch bricht
8. Und wüßten's die Blumen, die kleinen
9. Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen
10. Hör' ich das Liedchen klingen
11. Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen
12. Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen
13. Ich hab' im Traum geweinet
14. Allnächtlich im Traume seh' ich dich
15. Aus alten Märchen winkt es
16. Die alten, bösen Lieder
INTERVAL
Frauenliebe und Leben op.42 Robert Schumann
Song cycle after poems by Adelbert von Chamisso
1. Seit ich ihn gesehen
2. Er, der Herrlichste von allen
3. Ich kann's nicht fassen, nicht glauben
4. Du Ring an meinem Finger
5. Helft mir, ihr Schwestern
6. Süßer Freund, du blickest
7. An meinem Herzen, an meiner Brust
8. Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmerz getan
soprano Chia Yee Yean
Tenor Tan Wei Han
Pianist Kok-Ting Chong
Journey
Winterreise D911 op.89 Schubert
Song cycle after poems by Wilhelm Müller
1. Gute Nacht
2. Die Wetterfahne
3. Gefrorne Tränen
4. Erstarrung
5. Der Lindenbaum
6. Wasserflut
7. Auf dem Flusse
8. Rückblick
9. Irrlicht
10. Rast
11. Frühlingstraum
12. Einsamkeit
13. Die Post
14. Der greise Kopf
15. Die Krähe
16. Letzte Hoffnung
17. Im Dorfe
18. Der stürmische Morgen
19. Täuschung
20. Der Wegweiser
21. Das Wirtshaus
22. Mut
23. Die Nebensonnen
24. Der Leiermann
Baritone Eddy Chin
Pianist Kok-Ting Chong
On Wings of Song
1. Das Veilchen (Goethe) Mozart
2. Mailied (Goethe) Beethoven
3. Frühlingsglaube (Uhland) Schubert
4. Wandrers Nachtlied (Goethe) Schubert
5. Auf dem Wasser zu Singen (Stolberg) Schubert
6. Gretchen am Spinnrade (Goethe) Schubert
7. Erster Verlust (Goethe) Mendelssohn
8. Die Liebende Schreibt(Goethe) Mendelssohn
9. Auf Flügeln des Gesanges (Heine) Mendelssohn
INTERVAL
Dichterliebe (Heine) – selections Schumann
10. Im wunderschönen Monat Mai
11. Aus meinen Tränen sprießen
12. Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne
13. Wenn ich in deine Augen seh
14. Ich grolle nicht, und wenn das Herz auch bricht
15. Wie melödien zieht es mir (Groth) Brahms YY
16. Anakreon Grab (Goethe) Wolf
17. Verborgenheit (Mörike) Wolf
18. Ein Traum (Bodenstedt) Grieg
19. All mein Gedanken (Dahn) Strauss
20. Die Nacht (Gilm) Strauss
21. Du meines Herzens Krönelein (Dahn) Strauss
22. Zueignung (Gilm) Strauss
Soprano Chia Yee Yean
Soprano Evelyn Toh
Tenor Kee Loi Seng
Baritone Jeffery Chew
Pianist Kok-Ting Chong
Venue
The Actors Studio Greenhall Penang
Date
27th Ocotober 2007 ~ Written Word
28th October 2007 ~ Letters
Venue
Indicine@ Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPac)
Date
15th November 2007 ~ Written Word
16th November 2007 ~ Landscape
17th November 2007 ~ Letters
18th November 2007 ~ Journey
Venue
Taat House, Johor Bahru
Date
24th November 2007 ~ On Wings of Song
Venue
The Syuen Hotel, Ipoh
Date
28th November 2007 ~ On Wings of Song
Review by Lisa Ho
23. 11. 2007
Tembak: Artists Platform’s “Liederabend” by Lisa Ho
“Das Lied soll schauern und beben
Wie der Kuß von ihrem Mund”
The song should shudder and tremble
Like the kiss from her lips
-- “Dichterliebe”, Robert Schumann
German art song (Lieder) is a genre of music that has seen some revival in Kuala Lumpur lately. Beginning with the Lieder performances of Cantus Musicus in 2004 right to their most recent concert this year in collaboration with German Ambassador, HE Mr. Herbert Jess and the German Embassy, it is heartening to see another party of keen singers taking up the banner of promoting this musical art form.
Artists Platform and its leader, Chong Kok Ting, in collaboration with Dr. Volker Wolf of the Goethe-Institut Malaysia brought the beauty and romanticism of Lieder to many Malaysians through their “Liederabend -- German Art Song Series 2007” ("Liederabend") series of concerts in KL, Penang, Ipoh and Johor Bahru. A wide range of songs from Mozart to Strauss under different themes were performed by various singers -- all accompanied on the piano by Kok Ting. I did not manage to attend all four concerts in KL, but the two which I attended at the KLPac were interesting.
The “Liederabend” concert on 16th November was not only a musical treat but an informative art history lesson too! All the songs of the evening were songs pertaining to Nature, but Noor Mahnun Mohamed (the speaker for the concert) carefully selected paintings by a famous German artist, Caspar David Friedrich, to emotionally, if not graphically, match the songs. Some of the art songs that were rendered credibly were “Auf dem Wasser zu Singen” by Evelyn Toh, “Frühlingsnacht” by Jeffrey Chew and “Schäfers Klagelied” by Tan Sin Sim.
While all the singers that evening were equal in terms of vocal technique, I felt that Tan Sin Sim had the best overall presentation of her songs, although she was more Italianate in approach rather than Germanic, thus making some of the songs she rendered more dramatic than is accepted conventionally to listeners of Lieder. The encore which the four singers sang was a fitting tribute to music -- “An die Musik” -- that marked the close of a concert which showed good effort by Kok Ting and poetic, and artistic flair from the charming Noor Mahnun Mohamed.
The concert on 17th November was a revelation. Only one composer was featured on that evening’s programme – Robert Schumann. The two song-cycles, “Dichterliebe” and “Frauenliebe und Leben”, were performed by tenor Tan Wei Han and soprano Chia Yee Yean. Wei Han sung in heartfelt tones of the heartbreak and pain of love while Yee Yean sang beautifully of a woman’s life and love.
All throughout the performance, the letters of Robert Schumann with his wife Clara Wieck were projected onto the LCD screen in front of the audience. The effect of this was intended to heighten the emotions that go along with the songs as Robert Schumann died young and in tragic circumstances, while Clara suffered because of his early demise.
Wei Han sang with power and polish, and although he was overly enthusiastic in some of the songs which I felt required a little more restraint, it is something which one can overlook because the beauty of his voice just shone through. Yee Yean also performed beautifully with an elegance that perhaps was missing from most of the other younger singers of the previous night’s concert. Yee Yean’s German diction was perfect and her approach of the “Frauenliebe und Leben” was exactly as how one would approach Lieder in its performance context, but that was to be expected as she had spent a number of years in Austria. I liked Yee Yean’s clear and bright voice, never penetrating, never shrill for one moment even in the more dramatic parts of the song cycle.
Lieder, which used to be performed in the privacy of people’s homes, loses a little of its Gemütlichkeit when it is performed in an auditorium or studio. However, this loss was compensated very nicely by the warmth of the audience’s applause for both evenings and the nice decoration of the stage by Francoise Savaton, who should be congratulated for trying to achieve a cosy atmosphere in a venue that would have otherwise been sterile. This helped tremendously in the better appreciation of Lieder.
~~~
Lisa Ho is a German speaker, singer and piano accompanist who has been involved in nine Lieder concerts since 2004.
