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Concert review: San Francisco Symphony
Feb. 17th, 2005 09:17 pmRobert Schumann, having sequentially proven himself a master of solo piano music, songs, symphonies, and chamber music, decided at age 33 to tackle an oratorio. He took a German translation of a narrative poem by Thomas Moore (friend of Byron), and set it for ten vocal soloists, chorus, and a large orchestra. The setting interwove narration with dialogue and orchestra picture-painting. This rarely-performed work, at 90 minutes, is what took up the entirety of yesterday's symphony concert.
Das Paradies und die Peri, as it's called, is about this Peri, see, a Persian fay, who desires to enter heaven. Told she must bring a gift of that earthly thing that heaven values most, she knows that costly jewels are not what the angel had in mind. She tries the last drop of blood of a slain warrior and the last breath of a dead lover, before succeeding with the tear of a repentant sinner.
If you want to listen to a recording of a bit of this as a sample, I'd recommend a chunk near the beginning of part two, where the exhausted and dismayed Peri (soprano Laura Aikin in our performance) stops to rest in the waters of the Nile, while the river spirits (chorus) buzz about in excitement at their distinguished visitor. I'd heard Mendelssohn's fairy music before, but Schumann's subtly different fairy music was new to me. It's charming, and the closest thing to strophic writing in the whole piece. As do Weber's operas, Schumann's oratorio carries something of the seeds of Wagner's music dramas yet to come, particularly in the way the music flows from scene to scene as a continuous drama.
Not a work I'd want to carry around with me continuously. But interesting, very interesting to hear, and it fills in a major hole in my knowledge of a favorite composer.
Das Paradies und die Peri, as it's called, is about this Peri, see, a Persian fay, who desires to enter heaven. Told she must bring a gift of that earthly thing that heaven values most, she knows that costly jewels are not what the angel had in mind. She tries the last drop of blood of a slain warrior and the last breath of a dead lover, before succeeding with the tear of a repentant sinner.
If you want to listen to a recording of a bit of this as a sample, I'd recommend a chunk near the beginning of part two, where the exhausted and dismayed Peri (soprano Laura Aikin in our performance) stops to rest in the waters of the Nile, while the river spirits (chorus) buzz about in excitement at their distinguished visitor. I'd heard Mendelssohn's fairy music before, but Schumann's subtly different fairy music was new to me. It's charming, and the closest thing to strophic writing in the whole piece. As do Weber's operas, Schumann's oratorio carries something of the seeds of Wagner's music dramas yet to come, particularly in the way the music flows from scene to scene as a continuous drama.
Not a work I'd want to carry around with me continuously. But interesting, very interesting to hear, and it fills in a major hole in my knowledge of a favorite composer.
