Schubert has often been called a composer's composer. He's known not only for his piano works. He simply loved little songs. He wrote more than 600 of them in his life! And some say that one can even detect a song-like quality in his piano music. In his songs, his piano does not serve merely as an accompaniment: it's an active part of the song, introducing it, supporting it, varying it, giving it a proper emotional context, contrasting it with the singing parts, complementing it and sometimes paralleling the relevant lyrics, often based on poetry. We had 4 such pieces that night, An Silva (Who's Sylvia) D891, a song in praise of a lady beautiful both in appearance and in heart, Grensengesang (Song of Old Age) D 778 about an old man whose house is covered with snow but whose blood has gone from his face to a heart which beckons him to close the door to the world of reality so that he may the better preserve the fragrance of his dreams inside, Im Abendrot ( At Dusk) D799, a song about how a man finds the golden beams of beautiful red clouds in a sunset shine into his heart and how he feels united to God and Tränenregen (Rain of Tears) D795 No. 10 about how a man looks into his lover's eyes and sees not the reflection of moon, nor the stars which had already came out and how he saw the blue flowers on the bank and then everything melted when she said, "I'm going home", filling him with tears. They were sung for us by baritone Matthias Goerne from Germany, who is now in the middle of recording an 11 CD collection of Schubert's songs. He's got an excellent baritone voice, clear and warm and what's most important, he sang from his heart. An Silvia came from the words of Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona.
Schubert's lieders were followed by those of Richard Strauss: Traum durch die Dämmerung (Dreams of the Evening) Op 29 no. 1 about how a young man goes to a lovely lady in the grey twilight across a meadow, drawn by a thin silken thread to the arms of his lover in a blue, soft light; Das Rosenband (The Ring of Roses) Op 36 No 1 about how a young man finds her lover asleep in a shade in spring, ties her hair with red ribbons and murmurs sweet nothingness into her ears and finds Paradise when she wakes; Freundliche Vision ( Friendly Vision) Op 48 No.1 about how a young man saw a gleaming white house set amongst the the green leaves of bushes in a field of daisies and walked her lover into the cool of that beautiful white house which appeared to be awaiting their arrival; Heimliche Aufforderung (A Secret Pact) Op 27 no. 3 about how a young man asked her lover in the middle of a revelling feast in a bar to give him a sly winking signal at the right time in the midst all those toasts so that they could quietly slink out to meet in their usual spot in the garden, hidden from public view and to kiss her breast and twine the rose's splendour into her hair in the wondrous enchanted night; Ruhe, Meine Seele (Rest my Soul) Op 27 no. 1 about how a man asks his soul to stay calm when his raging storms had gone wild and trembling like a breaking wave, bringing torment to his heart and mind; Allerseelen (All Souls' Day ) Op 10 No. 8 about how a young man asks his lover to put on a table some fragrant mignonettes and speak of love to him, to let him hold her hands in secret and if discovered just to give him one of her sweet glances as once in May because that day, even dead souls are supposed to be flowering once more and finally Morgen (Morning) Op 27 no. 4 about how a young man looks forward to the morning which will enable him to meet his lover in a path of happiness and joy and to gaze at each others' eyes at the shore where the blue waves are lapping, enfolded by billows of silent joy.
After the intermission, we had another most popular work: Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor Op 67. with its famous opening motif which everyone knows. It's quite typical of Beethoven to so announce his main theme, right at the start but this 4 note motif continues and is repeated time and again during the entire 4 movements in Allegro con brio, Andante con moto, Allegro and Allegro. No matter how many times one has heard it, one never quite gets tired of it. Perhaps one is touched by Beethoven's passion. Perhaps one can't help himself being drawn into Beethoven's heroic struggle against his fate. Perhaps one is moved by the indomitable spirit of Beethoven, which somehow calls upon us never to give up in our own petty struggle against our own destiny because it promises that we will eventually triumph despite all our difficulties and come to a glorious resolution, one that is so powerful that it can afford to calm down, only bit by bit, and step by step as the ending of this symphony, which still reverberates with the force of the final stroke. Thanks to Jaap van Zweden, the HKPO delivered that power, that discipline, that hope and that glory.
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