Shakespeare in Songs – Anne Sofie von Otter
Chamber music
Friday 23 July 2021
7.30 pm, Saanen Church
Much like Goethe in German or Verlaine in French, William Shakespeare embodies for the English language this inspiring muse that composers, whether English or not, have continually called upon over the past five centuries, undoubtedly because they deem his pen to be particularly musical – or “musicable” –, a tendency that, moreover, seems to be set to continue for the foreseeable future. A chameleon-artist with the perfect diction for emphasising each word in the most diverse languages, mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter offers here an ambitious demonstration of this, as she intends to wander right through the huge “catalogue” of musical settings of Shakespeare's works, from Thomas Morley to... Rufus Wainwright!
1Anne Sofie von Otter, Mezzo-Soprano
2 Roderick Williams, Bass
Julius Drake, Piano
| Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) | |
| 1 “Orpheus and his lute” (from “Henry VIII”) | |
| Franz Schubert (1797-1828) | |
| 2 “An Silvia” (from “Two Gentlemen of Verona”) | |
| Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) | |
| 1 “She never told her love” (from “Twelfth Night”) | |
| Franz Schubert (1797-1828) | |
| 2 Ständchen “Horch, horch, die Lerch!” D 889 (from “Cymbeline”) | |
| Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) | |
| 2 “When icicles hang” (from “Love's Labour's Lost”) | |
| Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) | |
| 2 “Fancie” (from “The Merchant of Venice”) | |
| Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) | |
| 1 “Fancie” (from “The Merchant of Venice”) | |
| Hugo Wolf (1860-1903) | |
| 2 “Lied des transferierten Zettel” (from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”) | |
| Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) | |
| 1 “Welcome Wanderer… I know a bank” (from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”) | |
| Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) | |
| 2 “Fear no more the heat o’ the sun” (from “Cymbeline”) | |
| Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) | |
| 1, 2 “Adieu, Good Man Devil” (from “Twelfth Night”) | |
| 1, 2 “Under the Greenwood Tree” (from “As you like it”) | |
| 1, 2 “Hey Robin” (from “Twelfth Night”) | |
| Anonymus | |
| 1 Willow Song “The poor maid sat sighing” (tiré d'“Othello”) | |
| Claude Debussy (1862-1918) | |
| from “Children’s Corner”: | |
| V. “The Little Shepherd” | |
| Madeleine Dring (1923-1977) | |
| 2 “Take, o take those lips away” (from “Measure for Measure”) | |
| Roderick Williams (1965) | |
| 2 “Sigh no more, ladies” (from “Much Ado About Nothing”) | |
| Thomas Morley (ca. 1557-1602) | |
| 1, 2 “O Mistress Mine” (from “Twelfth Night”) | |
| Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) | |
| 1 “Kom nu hit, död” (from “Twelfth Night”) | |
| 1 “Hållihå uti storm och i regn” (from “Twelfth Night”) | |
| Robert Schumann (1810-1856) | |
| 2 “Schlusslied des Narren” (from “Twelfth Night”) | |
| Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) | |
| 1 “Ariels Sang” (texte: Helge Rode) | |
| Michael Tippett (1905-1998) | |
| from “Songs for Ariel” (from “The Tempest”): | |
| 1 “Come unto these yellow sands” | |
| 2 “Full fathom five” | |
| 1, 2 “Where the bee sucks” | |
| Frank Bridge (1879-1941) | |
| 2 “When most I wink” (from the Sonnet 43) | |
| Rufus Wainwright (1973) | |
| 1 “A Woman's Face” (from the Sonnet 20) | |
| Cole Porter (1891-1964) | |
| 1, 2 “Brush up your Shakespeare” (from “Kiss Me, Kate”) | |
| 80' | |
| CHF 125/105/65/40 |
