Few torments are as unshakeable as that of unrequited love. Yet sublimated passion has led to more than its share of artistic masterpieces. In advance of Valentine’s Day, we’ll enjoy the fruits of others’ longing, on this week’s “Music for Marlboro.”
It’s been speculated that Johannes Brahms’ “Liebeslieder Waltzes” was the product of his frustrated affection for Julie Schumann, the daughter of Robert and Clara Schumann. The dance-like settings for four voices and piano four-hands are based on love songs from Georg Friedrich Daumer’s collection “Polydora.”
We’ll hear them performed at the 1971 Marlboro Music Festival by soprano Kathryn Bouleyn, mezzo-soprano Mary Burgess, tenor Seth McCoy, and baritone John Magnuson, with Rudolf Serkin and Luis Batlle at the keyboard.
The remarkably prolific Indian summer of Czech master Leoš Janáček can attributed in part to the sublimated passion he felt for Kamila Stösslová. Stösslová was a married woman some 38 years the composer’s junior.
Janacek’s String Quartet No. 2, written in 1928, when he was about 74 years-old, was inspired by their long and intimate – though unconsummated – relationship, which is detailed in their more than 700 letters. The work has been described as a “manifesto on love.”
We’ll hear Janáček’s “Intimate Letters,” performed at Marlboro in 2002 by violinists Nicholas Kendall and Hiroko Yajima, violist Richard O’Neill, and cellist Alexis Pia Gerlach.
Great composers’ romantic frustrations are our gain, on “Music from Marlboro,” this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EST.
I’ll be in a little earlier, to woo you with some recorded serenades and hopefully convince you to show your support for great music with a financial contribution at 1-888-232-1212 or wwfm.org.
All told, I’ll be donning Cupid’s wings from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page
