Christa Ludwig- in Memorium
To honor the memory of the great mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig, who passed away April 26th, we hear today her legendary performance in the title role of Beethoven’s opera, Fidelio. She sings the recitative, “Abscheulicher! Wo eilst du hin?” followed by the aria, “Komm, Hoffnung!”
Monster! Where are you rushing?
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Irish Songs WoO 153-13
Beethoven lavished great care on his folksong arrangements - he set “’Tis sunshine at last” for both solo and duet voices. Here is a performance of the solo version in which the accompanists take over at one point to show off the beautiful instrumentation.
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Irish Songs WoO 153-12
“I’ll Praise the Saints with Early Song”, is a woman’s song of thanks that war is finally over. The husband has returned home battle-scarred but alive, and she, though worn by long years of care and sorrow, can at last look forward to peace and domestic happiness.
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Irish Sngs WoO 153-10
Sunday, April 25, 2021
The beautiful and poignant duet, "Oh! Thou Hapless Soldier" could be thought of as "the song of the unknown soldier".
Read moreIrish Songs WoO 153-9
Beethoven, though patronized by the European nobility, had no respect for “station”. His passionate commitment to elevating the status of the common man is evidenced by his long and sometime stormy collaboration with the Edinburgh publisher George Thomson, who commissioned and published settings of folk songs he had collected from all over the British Isles.
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Irish Songs, WoO 153-7
Thursday, April 22, 2021
The plaintive song, "O soothe me, my lyre" is the lament of a young woman who lies suffering from a wasting disease. The poem is written by William Smyth.
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Irish Songs, WoO 153-8
Friday, April 23, 2021
With its melodramatic flourishes, “Norah of Balamagairy: Farewell mirth and hilarity” is a favorite among Beethoven lovers world-wide.
Read moreIrish Songs, WoO 153-6
Today’s selection is the touching “Sad and luckless was the season” , WoO 153 number 6, text by William Smyth, a professor of history from Cambridge.
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Irish Songs, WoO 153-5
The setting of Robert Burns’ poem “I dream’d I lay where flow’rs were springing” is one of the few cases in which Beethoven agreed to revise a composition. George Thomson, the publisher, had objected that the introduction was too full of contrast and asked for something “more agreeable and cantabile”. Beethoven obliged with the following setting.
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Irish Songs, WoO 153, 4
The next song we will enjoy is WoO 153 number 4, "Since greybeards inform us":