Otto Tausk, conductor
Andrew Crust, conductor
Measha Brueggergosman, soprano
Coleridge-Taylor Four Novelletten for String Orchestra, Op.52
Mahler (arr. Simon) Six songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth’s Magic Horn)
The great Canadian soprano Measha Brueggergosman brings to life Mahler’s dramatic vision in Des Knaben Wunderhorn, a setting of German folk poems filled with imaginative orchestral colour and harmony. Plus, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s inventive and playful 4 Novelletten for String Orchestra cover the gamut from plaintive violin solo to playful dance suites.
This concert is dedicated to Ronald Laird Cliff, CM, OBC, a gentleman who has dedicated 65 years of service to the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and who is still going strong. Ron’s leadership and philanthropy has helped guide and transform the VSO, and shape it into the success story it is today.
Otto Tausk, conductor
Dutch conductor Otto Tausk is the Music Director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, now in his third season. He is also the newly announced Chief Conductor of recently formed Phion Orkest van Gelderland & Overijssel. Until spring 2018, Tausk was Music Director of the Opera Theatre and Tonhalle Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen. He appears as a guest with such orchestras as Concertgebouworkest, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Philharmonie Südwestfalen, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Mariinsky Orchestra, the orchestras of Perth, Tasmania, Auckland, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales, with whom he made his BBC Proms debut in August 2018. He is a hugely respected musical personality in his native Holland, working with all its major orchestras and composers.
In the 2020/21 season, Tausk continues guesting relationships with orchestras such as Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Het Gelders Orkest, Norwegian Radio Orchestra and Turku Philharmonic Orchestra. In Vancouver, Tausk will lead an innovative reimagined season in response to COVID-19, showcasing the orchestra with a curated series of digital performances.
In the opera pit, he will conduct Michel van der Aa’s new opera ‘Upload’, with the world premiere at Dutch National Opera, plus further appearances with the other co-commissioning parties including Oper Köln. In St. Gallen, Tausk conducted the world premiere of ‘Annas Maske’, by Swiss composer David Philip Hefti, the Swiss premiere of George Benjamin’s ‘Written on Skin’, Korngold’s ‘Die Tote Stadt’ and other titles including ‘Don Giovanni’, ‘Die Entführung aus dem Serail’, ‘Eugene Onegin’, ‘West Side Story’, ‘Lohengrin’ and ‘Ariadne auf Naxos’.
Tausk has recorded with the Concertgebouworkest (Luc Brewaeys, and an animated version of Prokofiev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’), Tonhalle Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen (Korngold and Diepenbrock), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (Mendelssohn) and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra (Gavin Bryars) amongst others. For the cpo label in 2011 Hans Pfitzner’s enchanting Orchesterlieder garnered international praise, not least the Classica France’s ‘Choc du mois’. His Prokofiev disc with Rosanne Philippens also received BBC Music Magazine Concerto Disc of the Month (2018).
Born in Utrecht, Otto Tausk initially studied violin and then conducting with Jonas Aleksa. Between 2004 and 2006, Tausk was assistant conductor to Valery Gergiev with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, a period of study that had a profound impact on him. In 2011 Tausk was presented with the ‘De Olifant’ prize by the City of Haarlem. He received this prestigious award for his contribution to the Arts in the Netherlands, in particular his extensive work with Holland Symfonia serving as Music Director 2007 to 2012. In reflecting on their work together in The Netherlands, Valery Gergiev paid particular tribute to Tausk on this occasion.
www.ottotausk.nl
Andrew Crust, conductor
Andrew Crust has developed a versatile international career as a conductor of orchestral, opera, ballet and pops programs. Currently serving as the Associate Conductor of the Vancouver Symphony in Canada, Andrew conducts a large number of subscription, pops, educational and contemporary concerts with the VSO each season. Andrew is the newly-appointed Music Director of the Lima Symphony Orchestra beginning in the 20/21, where he programs and conducts the Grand Classics, Pops and Educational series, featuring such soloists as Awadagin Pratt, Amit Peled and Kathrine Jolly.
In the current and upcoming seasons Andrew will debut with the Arkansas and Vermont Symphonies as Music Director finalist, and with the San Diego Symphony and Calgary Philharmonic as a guest conductor. Other recent engagements include performances with the Winnipeg Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Bozeman Symphony and l’Orchestre de la Francophonie in Québec.
Andrew is a 2020 winner of the Solti Foundation US Career Assistance Award. In 2017 he was awarded first prize at the Accademia Chigiana by Daniele Gatti, receiving a scholarship and an invitation to guest conduct the Orchestra di Sanremo in Italy. He was a semi-finalist for the Nestlé/Salzburg Festival’s Young Conductors Award competition, and was selected by members of the Vienna Philharmonic as a winner of the Ansbacher Fellowship, with full access to all rehearsals and performances of the Salzburg Festival.
Andrew is equally at ease in the pit, having conducted ballet with Ballet Memphis and the New Ballet Ensemble, and opera with Opera McGill, College Light Opera Company, Boulder Opera Company, and others. As a Pops conductor, Andrew has collaborated with such artists as Rufus Wainwright, Steven Page, Michael Bolton, Cirque de la Symphonie, and the United States Jazz Ambassadors. Andrew has also established himself as a conductor of films with orchestra.
Andrew served as Assistant Conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra from 2017-2019 where he conducted around forty concerts each season. He stepped in last minute for a successful subscription performance featuring Bernstein’s Serenade with violinist Charles Yang. Andrew also served as Conductor of the Memphis Youth Symphony Program. As the Assistant Conductor of the Portland Symphony Orchestra in Maine from 2016-2018, he conducted a variety of concert series, helped coordinate the orchestra’s extensive educational programs, and helped lead a program for concertgoers under 40 called “Symphony and Spirits”.
Crust was the Assistant Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of the USA (NYO-USA) in the summers of 2017 and 2018, assisting Michael Tilson Thomas on an Asian tour, as well as Giancarlo Guerrero, Marin Alsop and James Ross at Carnegie Hall and in a side-by-side performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has also served as Cover Conductor of the Kansas City Symphony, San Diego Symphony and Nashville Symphony, Assistant/Cover Conductor of the Boulder Philharmonic and Assistant Conductor of Opera McGill.
Abroad, he has led concerts with the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana in Italy, Hamburger Symphoniker at the Mendelssohn Festival in Germany, the Moravian Philharmonic in the Czech Republic and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Chile in Santiago.
As an arranger/orchestrator, Andrew is currently working with Schirmer to make orchestrations of a set of Florence Price’s art songs, has orchestrated works by Alma Mahler and Prokofiev, as well as many pops and educational selections.
Andrew is dedicated to exploring new ways of bringing the classical music experience into the 21st century through innovative programming and marketing, creating community-oriented and socially-sensitive concert experiences, and utilizing social media and unique venues. Andrew is a firm believer in meaningful music education, having produced and written a number of original educational programs with orchestras.
Measha Brueggergosman, soprano
Motivated and hungry for new experiences, Ms. Brueggergosman’s career effortlessly embraces the broadest array of performance platforms and musical styles and genres.
Measha began her career predominantly committed to the art of the song recital and has presented innovative programs at Carnegie Hall, Washington’s Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, both the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna, Madrid’s Teatro Real, as well as at the Schwarzenberg, Edinburgh, Verbier and Bergen Festivals with celebrated collaborative pianists Justus Zeyen, Roger Vignoles, Julius Drake, and Simon Lepper.
On the opera stage, her recent highlights include the roles of Giulietta and Antonia in Les contes d’Hoffmann, Elettra in Idomeneo, Jenny in Weill’s Mahagonny, Emilia Marty in Janáček’s Věc Makropulos, Hannah in Miroslav Srnka’s Make No Noise, and Sister Rose in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking. On the concert platform last season she returned to Carnegie Hall with the New World Symphony, performed Elettra in Idomeneo at Opera Atelier, Toronto, and gave a recital at the Barbican Center, London. She has also recently worked with the Orchestre de Paris, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and New World Symphony. Orchestras and conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Michael Tilson Thomas, Franz Welser-Möst, Sir Andrew Davis, Gustavo Dudamel and Daniel Harding.
Her first recording for Deutsche Grammophon, Surprise, includes works by Schoenberg, Satie and Bolcom and is one of the most highly regarded debut albums of recent years. Her subsequent disc Night and Dreams, which features songs by Mozart, Brahms, Strauss, Schubert, Debussy, Duparc and Fauré won several awards and her recording of the Wesendonck Lieder with Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra earned her a Grammy nomination.
Off the stage, Measha is just as active: she recently released her memoir “Something Is Always On Fire” published by Harper Collins, she appears regularly on primetime TV (most recently advocating on behalf of contemporary Canadian literature); and leading Canadian children across the country in song, in celebration of the nationwide campaign for music education.
Measha Brueggergosman champions the education and involvement of new audiences and holds several honorary doctorates and ambassadorial titles with international charities.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
b. August 15, 1875 / Holborn, London, UK
d. September 1, 1912 / Croydon, Surrey, UK
Four Novelletten for Strings and Percussion, Op. 52 (1903)
No. 1 in A Major- Allegro Moderato
No. 2 in C Major - Larghetto
No. 3 in A minor – Valse: Andante con moto
No. 4 in D Major – Allegro molto
The program begins with the Four Novelletten for strings and percussion by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. He was born in Victorian England in 1875, the son of an English woman, Alice Martin, and Daniel Taylor, a doctor originally from Sierra Leone, who was studying medicine in the UK. Taylor’s African roots extended back to a group of freed slaves who remained loyal to the British crown throughout the American revolutionary war. After the United States gained its independence, many Krio speaking people were repatriated by British abolitionists to West Africa. As a black man, Dr. Taylor was frustrated by the racial prejudice he faced and chose to leave the UK. He returned to Africa and had no further contact with his English family.
Samuel’s mother chose to name her son after Samuel Taylor-Coleridge (born 100 years earlier), the British poet whose works she adored. Young Samuel was raised within his mother’s extended (and very musical) family, where his talents blossomed. Despite the family’s modest income, Samuel entered the Royal College of Music from the age of 13, and eventually studied composition with Charles Villiers Stanford. This was roughly the same time period that Dvořák headed up the National Conservatory of Music in America, (1892-1895), encouraging a “New World” in musical outlook.
Coleridge-Taylor took up positions in Croydon, his hometown, south of London, and began to make a name for himself as a violinist, professor, conductor, and composer. He became fascinated with Native American stories and themes, which gave rise to his popular musical trilogy: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, The Death of Minnehaha, and Hiawatha’s Departure. He also pursued his interest in musical forms being written and played by black musicians in America.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was just 25 when he attended the First Pan-African Conference in London at the turn of the century. He travelled to both Africa and America, and developed connections with leaders fighting for racial equality, including civil rights activist Booker T. Washington. He was also celebrated with the formation of the Coleridge-Taylor society, a group of musicians dedicated to performing and promoting his music in United States.
From 1903 until his death in 1912, Coleridge-Taylor was a professor of composition at the Trinity College of Music and Guildhall School of Music in London. He adjudicated many competitions throughout Britain, and was the conductor of the Handel Society, the Rochester Choral Society, and many provincial orchestras.
In 1912, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor died tragically young, at the age of 37, from pneumonia. Although his printed music was widely circulated and immensely popular, he saw little of the money that should rightly have come his way. His legacy continues to be explored and his importance appreciated as an artist who championed social awareness and the music of marginalized people. He has been viewed as a beacon of hope and an iconic figure of Black British history for his achievements and success in classical music.
While his choral trilogy The Song of Hiawatha brought him the widest fame, some of Coleridge-Taylor’s smaller scale works demonstrate the same skill and musical charm. The Four Novelletten for strings (further enhanced by colourful percussion effect) date from the early 1900s and provide a wonderful example of his melodic and harmonic invention within a dancing European framework.
Gustav Mahler
b. b. July 7, 1860 / Kaliště, Bohemia
d. May 18, 1811 / Vienna, Austria
Six Songs from “Des Knaben Wunderhorn” (The youth’s magic horn)
Rheinlegendchen (Little Rhine Legend)
Verlorne Müh’! (Wasted Effort)
Urlicht (Primal Light)
Das irdische Leben (The Earthly Life)
Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen (Where the Beautiful Trumpets Blow)
Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht? (Who thought up this little song?)
Mahler found great inspiration in a collection of traditional verse titled Des Knaben Wunderhorn. The folksy, poetic volume was assembled and published in 1805 by Achim von Arnim and Clements Brentano. These “Old German Songs” were designed to provide a window on the lives, loves, lessons and losses of everyday people. The poet Goethe suggested “…this volume should lie on the pianos of music lovers and composers, where justice might be done these poems by joining them to their familiar, traditional tunes or…God willing, by finding in them the inspiration for significant new melodies.” That is precisely what Mahler did. Over half of his forty-odd songs were based on Wunderhorn texts. Some were set for piano and voice, others incorporated into his symphonies. A clutch of fourteen were composed for voice and orchestra using the title Des Knaben Wunderhorn in an unordered collection.
The present score, with reduced orchestral forces, has been fashioned by Klaus Simon. In reviewing a recent performance (with Otto Tausk and mezzo soprano Christianne Stotijn), the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad viewed these songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn as a look back – intentional or not - at the past pandemic-filled year. With tales of separation, those who hear but fail to listen, comments on a child dying of hunger after promises of bread, the comforting hand of love and the beauty of the natural world, the selection covers a wide range of human emotions. The choice of songs “…gave a voice to that range of feelings, of hope and despair, of love but also biting mockery, and - finally - of surrender to that which is greater than ourselves.”
Little Rhein Legend is a love-filled ländler, with something of an erotic undertone as a peasant daydreams at the riverside, casting in search of an amorous encounter. The next piece performed, Wasted Effort, is a dialogue in which a foolish lass makes numerous attempts to entice a young lad, but is rejected, more forcefully, each time. Despite her persistence, he proclaims as his last word that he wants “Nothing!”
Primal Light (which is featured in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2) evokes nature as paradise, as a soul journeys to heaven and the promise of Resurrection. By contrast, The Earthly Life is a dialogue between a pleading child and an exasperated mother, whose repeated admonition to wait until tomorrow has tragic consequences.
Where the Beautiful Trumpets Blow is an eerie tryst, real or imagined, between lovers on the day of a battle. A lighter mood is restored with Who Thought Up This Little Song?. It is another folksy ländler in an Alpine setting as it evokes the cajoling dialogue of distanced lovers.
Notes: Matthew Baird
Texts / Translations
Rheinlegendchen / Little Rhein Legend
Bald gras’ ich am Neckar,
bald gras’ ich am Rhein;
bald hab’ ich ein Schätzel,
bald bin ich allein!
Was hilft mir das Grasen,
wenn d’Sichel nicht schneid’t;
was hilft mir ein Schätzel,
wenn’s bei mir nicht bleibt!
So soll ich denn grasen
am Neckar, am Rhein,
so werf’ ich mein goldenes
Ringlein hinein.
Es fließet im Neckar
und fließet im Rhein,
soll schwimmen hinunter
in’s Meer tief hinein.
Und schwimmt es, das Ringlein,
so frißt es ein Fisch!
Das Fischlein soll kommen
auf’s König’s sein Tisch!
Der König tät fragen,
wem’s Ringlein sollt’ sein?
Da tät mein Schatz sagen:
„Das Ringlein g’hört mein!“
Mein Schätzlein tät springen
Berg auf und Berg ein,
tät mir wied’rum bringen
das Goldringlein mein!
Kannst grasen am Neckar,
kannst grasen am Rhein!
Wirf du mir nur immer
dein Ringlein hinein!
Now I mow by the Neckar,
now I mow by the Rhine;
now I have a sweetheart,
now I’m alone!
What good is mowing
if the sickle doesn’t cut;
what good is a sweetheart,
if he/she doesn’t stay with me!
So should I then mow
by the Neckar, by the Rhine,
then I will throw
my little gold ring in.
It will float in the Neckar
and float in the Rhine,
it shall swim right down
into the deep sea.
And when it swims, the little ring,
then a fish will eat it!
The fish will land
on the king’s table!
The king would ask,
whose ring can it be?
Then my sweetheart would say:
‘The ring belongs to me!’
My sweetheart would spring
up hill and down hill,
would bring back to me
my fine little gold ring!
You can mow by the Neckar,
you can mow by the Rhine!
You can always toss in
your little ring to me!
______________________
Verlorne Müh’! / Wasted Effort
Sie: „Büble, wir!
Büble, wir wollen auße gehe!
Wollen wir?
Unsere Lämmer besehe?
Gelt! Komm! Komm! lieb’s Büberle,
komm’, ich bitt’!“
Er: „Närrisches Dinterle,
ich mag dich halt nit!“
Sie: „Willst vielleicht –
Willst vielleicht a bissel nasche?
Hol’ dir was aus meiner Tasch’!
Hol’, lieb’s Büberle,
hol’, ich bitt’!“
Er: „Närrisches Dinterle,
ich nasch’ dir halt nit!“
Sie: „Gelt, ich soll –
Gelt? ich soll mein Herz dir schenke?
Immer willst an mich gedenken.
Immer!
Nimm’s, lieb’s Büberle!
Nimm’s, ich bitt’!“
Er: „Närrisches Dinterle,
ich mag es halt nit!
nit!“
She: ‘Laddie, we!
Laddie, we want to go out!
Shall we?
Look at our lambs?
Come, come, dear laddie!
Come, I beg you!’
He: ‘Silly lassie,
I don’t like you at all!’
She: ‘You want perhaps –
You want perhaps a little bit to nibble?
Fetch yourself something out of my bag!
Fetch it, dear laddie!
Fetch it, I beg you!’
He: ‘Silly lassie,
I’ll nibble nothing of yours at all!’
She: ‘You mean, I should –
You mean, I should give you my heart!?
Always will you want to think on me.
Always!
Take it! Dear laddie!
Take it, I beg you!’
He: ‘Silly lassie,
I don’t care for it at all!
Nothing!’
______________________
Urlicht / Primal Light
O Röschen rot!
Der Mensch liegt in größter Not!
Der Mensch liegt in größter Pein!
Je lieber möcht’ ich im Himmel sein!
Da kam ich auf einen breiten Weg.
Da kam ein Engelein und wollt mich abweisen.
Ach nein! Ich ließ mich nicht abweisen!
Ach nein! Ich ließ mich nicht abweisen:
Ich bin von Gott, und will wieder zu Gott!
Der liebe Gott wird mir ein Lichtchen geben,
wird leuchten mir bis in das ewig selig Leben!
O little red rose!
Man lies in greatest need!
Man lies in greatest pain!
Even more would I rather be in heaven!
There I came upon a broad path.
There came an angel and wanted to turn me away.
Ah no, I would not be turned away!
Ah no, I would not be turned away:
I am from God and want to return to God!
The loving God will give me a little of the light,
will illuminate me into the eternal blessed life!
______________________
Das irdische Leben / The Earthly Life
„Mutter, ach Mutter, es hungert mich!
Gieb mir Brot, sonst sterbe ich!“
„Warte nur! Warte nur, mein liebes Kind!
Morgen wollen wir ernten geschwind!“
Und als das Korn geerntet war,
rief das Kind noch immerdar:
„Mutter, ach Mutter, es hungert mich!
Gieb mir Brot, sonst sterbe ich!“
„Warte nur! Warte nur, mein liebes Kind!
Morgen wollen wir dreschen geschwind!“
Und als das Korn gedroschen war,
rief das Kind noch immerdar:
„Mutter, ach Mutter, es hungert mich!
Gieb mir Brot, sonst sterbe ich!“
„Warte nur! Warte nur, mein liebes Kind!
Morgen wollen wir backen geschwind!“
Und als das Brot gebacken war,
lag das Kind auf der Totenbahr’!
‘Mother, oh mother, I’m hungry!
Give me some bread or I shall die!’
‘Just wait! Just wait, my dear child!
Tomorrow we shall hurry to harvest!’
And when the grain was harvested,
the child still cried out:
‘Mother, oh mother, I’m hungry!
Give me some bread or I shall die!’
‘Just wait! Just wait, my dear child!
Tomorrow we shall hurry and go threshing!’
And when the grain was threshed,
the child still cried out:
‘Mother, oh mother, I’m hungry!
Give me some bread or I shall die!’
‘Just wait! Just wait, my dear child!
Tomorrow we shall hurry and bake!’
And when the bread was baked,
the child lay on the funeral bier!
______________________
Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen / Where the Beautiful Trumpets Blow
Wer ist denn draußen und wer klopfet an,
der mich so leise wecken kann!?
Das ist der Herzallerlieble dein,
steh’ auf und laß mich zu dir ein!
Was soll ich hier nun länger steh’n?
Ich seh’ die Morgenröt’ aufgeh’n,
die Morgenröt’, zwei helle Stern’.
Bei meinem Schatz da wär ich gern’,
bei meinem Herzallerlieble.
Das Mädchen stand auf und ließ ihn ein;
sie heißt ihn auch willkommen sein.
Willkommen lieber Knabe mein,
so lang hast du gestanden!
Sie reicht’ ihm auch die schneeweiße Hand.
Von ferne sang die Nachtigall,
das Mädchen fängt zu weinen an.
Ach weine nicht, du Liebste mein,
auf’s Jahr sollst du mein Eigen sein.
Mein Eigen sollst du werden gewiß,
wie’s Keine sonst auf Erden ist!
O Lieb auf grüner Erden.
Ich zieh’ in Krieg auf grüne Haid,
die grüne Haide, die ist so weit!
Allwo dort die schönen Trompeten blasen,
da ist mein Haus,
mein Haus von grünem Rasen!
Who then is outside and who is knocking,
that can so softly awaken me?
It is your dearest darling,
get up and let me come to you!
Why should I go on standing here?
I see the red of morn arise,
the red of morn, two bright stars.
I long to be with my sweetheart!
With my dearest darling.
The maiden got up and let him in;
she bade him welcome, too.
Welcome, my dear lad!
You have been standing so long!
She offered him too her snow-white hand.
From far away the nightingale sang,
then the maiden began to weep.
Ah, do not weep, beloved mine
after a year you will be my own.
My own you shall certainly become,
as is no other on earth!
Oh love on the green earth.
I’m off to war, on the green heath,
the green heath is so far away!
Where there the fair trumpets sound,
there is my home,
my house of green grass!
______________________
Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht? / Who thought up this little song?
Dort oben am Berg
in dem hohen Haus,
in dem Haus!
Da gucket ein fein’s, lieb’s Mädel heraus!
Es ist nicht dort daheime!
Es ist des Wirt’s sein Töchterlein!
Es wohnet auf grüner Haide!
Mein Herzle is’ wundt!
Komm’, Schätzle, mach’s g’sund!
Dein’ schwarzbraune Äuglein,
die hab’n mich verwund’t!
Dein rosiger Mund
macht Herzen gesund.
Macht Jugend verständig,
macht Tote lebendig,
macht Kranke gesund,
ja gesund.
Wer hat denn das schön schöne Liedlein erdacht?
Es haben’s drei Gäns’ über’s Wasser gebracht!
Zwei graue und eine weiße!
Und wer das Liedel nicht singen kann,
dem wollen sie es pfeifen!
Ja!
Up there on the mountain,
in the high house,
in the house!
There peers out a fine, dear maiden!
There is not her home!
She is the innkeeper’s daughter!
She lives on the green heath!
My heart has a wound!
Come, sweetheart, make it well!
Your dark brown little eyes,
they have wounded me!
Your rosy mouth
makes hearts well.
It makes young people rational,
brings the dead back to life,
makes the ill healthy,
yes, healthy.
Who then thought up this pretty, pretty little song?
Three geese have brought it over the water!
Two grey and one white!
And whoever cannot sing this little song,
to him they will whistle it!
Yes –
______________________
Translations © 2002, Dr. Renate Stark-Voit and Thomas Hampson
Otto Tausk, conductor
Andrew Crust, conductor
Measha Brueggergosman, soprano
Coleridge-Taylor Four Novelletten for String Orchestra, Op.52
Mahler (arr. Simon) Six songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth’s Magic Horn)
The great Canadian soprano Measha Brueggergosman brings to life Mahler’s dramatic vision in Des Knaben Wunderhorn, a setting of German folk poems filled with imaginative orchestral colour and harmony. Plus, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s inventive and playful 4 Novelletten for String Orchestra cover the gamut from plaintive violin solo to playful dance suites.
This concert is dedicated to Ronald Laird Cliff, CM, OBC, a gentleman who has dedicated 65 years of service to the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and who is still going strong. Ron’s leadership and philanthropy has helped guide and transform the VSO, and shape it into the success story it is today.
Otto Tausk, conductor
Dutch conductor Otto Tausk is the Music Director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, now in his third season. He is also the newly announced Chief Conductor of recently formed Phion Orkest van Gelderland & Overijssel. Until spring 2018, Tausk was Music Director of the Opera Theatre and Tonhalle Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen. He appears as a guest with such orchestras as Concertgebouworkest, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Philharmonie Südwestfalen, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Mariinsky Orchestra, the orchestras of Perth, Tasmania, Auckland, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales, with whom he made his BBC Proms debut in August 2018. He is a hugely respected musical personality in his native Holland, working with all its major orchestras and composers.
In the 2020/21 season, Tausk continues guesting relationships with orchestras such as Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Het Gelders Orkest, Norwegian Radio Orchestra and Turku Philharmonic Orchestra. In Vancouver, Tausk will lead an innovative reimagined season in response to COVID-19, showcasing the orchestra with a curated series of digital performances.
In the opera pit, he will conduct Michel van der Aa’s new opera ‘Upload’, with the world premiere at Dutch National Opera, plus further appearances with the other co-commissioning parties including Oper Köln. In St. Gallen, Tausk conducted the world premiere of ‘Annas Maske’, by Swiss composer David Philip Hefti, the Swiss premiere of George Benjamin’s ‘Written on Skin’, Korngold’s ‘Die Tote Stadt’ and other titles including ‘Don Giovanni’, ‘Die Entführung aus dem Serail’, ‘Eugene Onegin’, ‘West Side Story’, ‘Lohengrin’ and ‘Ariadne auf Naxos’.
Tausk has recorded with the Concertgebouworkest (Luc Brewaeys, and an animated version of Prokofiev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’), Tonhalle Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen (Korngold and Diepenbrock), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (Mendelssohn) and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra (Gavin Bryars) amongst others. For the cpo label in 2011 Hans Pfitzner’s enchanting Orchesterlieder garnered international praise, not least the Classica France’s ‘Choc du mois’. His Prokofiev disc with Rosanne Philippens also received BBC Music Magazine Concerto Disc of the Month (2018).
Born in Utrecht, Otto Tausk initially studied violin and then conducting with Jonas Aleksa. Between 2004 and 2006, Tausk was assistant conductor to Valery Gergiev with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, a period of study that had a profound impact on him. In 2011 Tausk was presented with the ‘De Olifant’ prize by the City of Haarlem. He received this prestigious award for his contribution to the Arts in the Netherlands, in particular his extensive work with Holland Symfonia serving as Music Director 2007 to 2012. In reflecting on their work together in The Netherlands, Valery Gergiev paid particular tribute to Tausk on this occasion.
www.ottotausk.nl
Andrew Crust, conductor
Andrew Crust has developed a versatile international career as a conductor of orchestral, opera, ballet and pops programs. Currently serving as the Associate Conductor of the Vancouver Symphony in Canada, Andrew conducts a large number of subscription, pops, educational and contemporary concerts with the VSO each season. Andrew is the newly-appointed Music Director of the Lima Symphony Orchestra beginning in the 20/21, where he programs and conducts the Grand Classics, Pops and Educational series, featuring such soloists as Awadagin Pratt, Amit Peled and Kathrine Jolly.
In the current and upcoming seasons Andrew will debut with the Arkansas and Vermont Symphonies as Music Director finalist, and with the San Diego Symphony and Calgary Philharmonic as a guest conductor. Other recent engagements include performances with the Winnipeg Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Bozeman Symphony and l’Orchestre de la Francophonie in Québec.
Andrew is a 2020 winner of the Solti Foundation US Career Assistance Award. In 2017 he was awarded first prize at the Accademia Chigiana by Daniele Gatti, receiving a scholarship and an invitation to guest conduct the Orchestra di Sanremo in Italy. He was a semi-finalist for the Nestlé/Salzburg Festival’s Young Conductors Award competition, and was selected by members of the Vienna Philharmonic as a winner of the Ansbacher Fellowship, with full access to all rehearsals and performances of the Salzburg Festival.
Andrew is equally at ease in the pit, having conducted ballet with Ballet Memphis and the New Ballet Ensemble, and opera with Opera McGill, College Light Opera Company, Boulder Opera Company, and others. As a Pops conductor, Andrew has collaborated with such artists as Rufus Wainwright, Steven Page, Michael Bolton, Cirque de la Symphonie, and the United States Jazz Ambassadors. Andrew has also established himself as a conductor of films with orchestra.
Andrew served as Assistant Conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra from 2017-2019 where he conducted around forty concerts each season. He stepped in last minute for a successful subscription performance featuring Bernstein’s Serenade with violinist Charles Yang. Andrew also served as Conductor of the Memphis Youth Symphony Program. As the Assistant Conductor of the Portland Symphony Orchestra in Maine from 2016-2018, he conducted a variety of concert series, helped coordinate the orchestra’s extensive educational programs, and helped lead a program for concertgoers under 40 called “Symphony and Spirits”.
Crust was the Assistant Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of the USA (NYO-USA) in the summers of 2017 and 2018, assisting Michael Tilson Thomas on an Asian tour, as well as Giancarlo Guerrero, Marin Alsop and James Ross at Carnegie Hall and in a side-by-side performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has also served as Cover Conductor of the Kansas City Symphony, San Diego Symphony and Nashville Symphony, Assistant/Cover Conductor of the Boulder Philharmonic and Assistant Conductor of Opera McGill.
Abroad, he has led concerts with the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana in Italy, Hamburger Symphoniker at the Mendelssohn Festival in Germany, the Moravian Philharmonic in the Czech Republic and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Chile in Santiago.
As an arranger/orchestrator, Andrew is currently working with Schirmer to make orchestrations of a set of Florence Price’s art songs, has orchestrated works by Alma Mahler and Prokofiev, as well as many pops and educational selections.
Andrew is dedicated to exploring new ways of bringing the classical music experience into the 21st century through innovative programming and marketing, creating community-oriented and socially-sensitive concert experiences, and utilizing social media and unique venues. Andrew is a firm believer in meaningful music education, having produced and written a number of original educational programs with orchestras.
Measha Brueggergosman, soprano
Motivated and hungry for new experiences, Ms. Brueggergosman’s career effortlessly embraces the broadest array of performance platforms and musical styles and genres.
Measha began her career predominantly committed to the art of the song recital and has presented innovative programs at Carnegie Hall, Washington’s Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, both the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna, Madrid’s Teatro Real, as well as at the Schwarzenberg, Edinburgh, Verbier and Bergen Festivals with celebrated collaborative pianists Justus Zeyen, Roger Vignoles, Julius Drake, and Simon Lepper.
On the opera stage, her recent highlights include the roles of Giulietta and Antonia in Les contes d’Hoffmann, Elettra in Idomeneo, Jenny in Weill’s Mahagonny, Emilia Marty in Janáček’s Věc Makropulos, Hannah in Miroslav Srnka’s Make No Noise, and Sister Rose in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking. On the concert platform last season she returned to Carnegie Hall with the New World Symphony, performed Elettra in Idomeneo at Opera Atelier, Toronto, and gave a recital at the Barbican Center, London. She has also recently worked with the Orchestre de Paris, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and New World Symphony. Orchestras and conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Michael Tilson Thomas, Franz Welser-Möst, Sir Andrew Davis, Gustavo Dudamel and Daniel Harding.
Her first recording for Deutsche Grammophon, Surprise, includes works by Schoenberg, Satie and Bolcom and is one of the most highly regarded debut albums of recent years. Her subsequent disc Night and Dreams, which features songs by Mozart, Brahms, Strauss, Schubert, Debussy, Duparc and Fauré won several awards and her recording of the Wesendonck Lieder with Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra earned her a Grammy nomination.
Off the stage, Measha is just as active: she recently released her memoir “Something Is Always On Fire” published by Harper Collins, she appears regularly on primetime TV (most recently advocating on behalf of contemporary Canadian literature); and leading Canadian children across the country in song, in celebration of the nationwide campaign for music education.
Measha Brueggergosman champions the education and involvement of new audiences and holds several honorary doctorates and ambassadorial titles with international charities.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
b. August 15, 1875 / Holborn, London, UK
d. September 1, 1912 / Croydon, Surrey, UK
Four Novelletten for Strings and Percussion, Op. 52 (1903)
No. 1 in A Major- Allegro Moderato
No. 2 in C Major - Larghetto
No. 3 in A minor – Valse: Andante con moto
No. 4 in D Major – Allegro molto
The program begins with the Four Novelletten for strings and percussion by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. He was born in Victorian England in 1875, the son of an English woman, Alice Martin, and Daniel Taylor, a doctor originally from Sierra Leone, who was studying medicine in the UK. Taylor’s African roots extended back to a group of freed slaves who remained loyal to the British crown throughout the American revolutionary war. After the United States gained its independence, many Krio speaking people were repatriated by British abolitionists to West Africa. As a black man, Dr. Taylor was frustrated by the racial prejudice he faced and chose to leave the UK. He returned to Africa and had no further contact with his English family.
Samuel’s mother chose to name her son after Samuel Taylor-Coleridge (born 100 years earlier), the British poet whose works she adored. Young Samuel was raised within his mother’s extended (and very musical) family, where his talents blossomed. Despite the family’s modest income, Samuel entered the Royal College of Music from the age of 13, and eventually studied composition with Charles Villiers Stanford. This was roughly the same time period that Dvořák headed up the National Conservatory of Music in America, (1892-1895), encouraging a “New World” in musical outlook.
Coleridge-Taylor took up positions in Croydon, his hometown, south of London, and began to make a name for himself as a violinist, professor, conductor, and composer. He became fascinated with Native American stories and themes, which gave rise to his popular musical trilogy: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, The Death of Minnehaha, and Hiawatha’s Departure. He also pursued his interest in musical forms being written and played by black musicians in America.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was just 25 when he attended the First Pan-African Conference in London at the turn of the century. He travelled to both Africa and America, and developed connections with leaders fighting for racial equality, including civil rights activist Booker T. Washington. He was also celebrated with the formation of the Coleridge-Taylor society, a group of musicians dedicated to performing and promoting his music in United States.
From 1903 until his death in 1912, Coleridge-Taylor was a professor of composition at the Trinity College of Music and Guildhall School of Music in London. He adjudicated many competitions throughout Britain, and was the conductor of the Handel Society, the Rochester Choral Society, and many provincial orchestras.
In 1912, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor died tragically young, at the age of 37, from pneumonia. Although his printed music was widely circulated and immensely popular, he saw little of the money that should rightly have come his way. His legacy continues to be explored and his importance appreciated as an artist who championed social awareness and the music of marginalized people. He has been viewed as a beacon of hope and an iconic figure of Black British history for his achievements and success in classical music.
While his choral trilogy The Song of Hiawatha brought him the widest fame, some of Coleridge-Taylor’s smaller scale works demonstrate the same skill and musical charm. The Four Novelletten for strings (further enhanced by colourful percussion effect) date from the early 1900s and provide a wonderful example of his melodic and harmonic invention within a dancing European framework.
Gustav Mahler
b. b. July 7, 1860 / Kaliště, Bohemia
d. May 18, 1811 / Vienna, Austria
Six Songs from “Des Knaben Wunderhorn” (The youth’s magic horn)
Rheinlegendchen (Little Rhine Legend)
Verlorne Müh’! (Wasted Effort)
Urlicht (Primal Light)
Das irdische Leben (The Earthly Life)
Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen (Where the Beautiful Trumpets Blow)
Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht? (Who thought up this little song?)
Mahler found great inspiration in a collection of traditional verse titled Des Knaben Wunderhorn. The folksy, poetic volume was assembled and published in 1805 by Achim von Arnim and Clements Brentano. These “Old German Songs” were designed to provide a window on the lives, loves, lessons and losses of everyday people. The poet Goethe suggested “…this volume should lie on the pianos of music lovers and composers, where justice might be done these poems by joining them to their familiar, traditional tunes or…God willing, by finding in them the inspiration for significant new melodies.” That is precisely what Mahler did. Over half of his forty-odd songs were based on Wunderhorn texts. Some were set for piano and voice, others incorporated into his symphonies. A clutch of fourteen were composed for voice and orchestra using the title Des Knaben Wunderhorn in an unordered collection.
The present score, with reduced orchestral forces, has been fashioned by Klaus Simon. In reviewing a recent performance (with Otto Tausk and mezzo soprano Christianne Stotijn), the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad viewed these songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn as a look back – intentional or not - at the past pandemic-filled year. With tales of separation, those who hear but fail to listen, comments on a child dying of hunger after promises of bread, the comforting hand of love and the beauty of the natural world, the selection covers a wide range of human emotions. The choice of songs “…gave a voice to that range of feelings, of hope and despair, of love but also biting mockery, and - finally - of surrender to that which is greater than ourselves.”
Little Rhein Legend is a love-filled ländler, with something of an erotic undertone as a peasant daydreams at the riverside, casting in search of an amorous encounter. The next piece performed, Wasted Effort, is a dialogue in which a foolish lass makes numerous attempts to entice a young lad, but is rejected, more forcefully, each time. Despite her persistence, he proclaims as his last word that he wants “Nothing!”
Primal Light (which is featured in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2) evokes nature as paradise, as a soul journeys to heaven and the promise of Resurrection. By contrast, The Earthly Life is a dialogue between a pleading child and an exasperated mother, whose repeated admonition to wait until tomorrow has tragic consequences.
Where the Beautiful Trumpets Blow is an eerie tryst, real or imagined, between lovers on the day of a battle. A lighter mood is restored with Who Thought Up This Little Song?. It is another folksy ländler in an Alpine setting as it evokes the cajoling dialogue of distanced lovers.
Notes: Matthew Baird
Texts / Translations
Rheinlegendchen / Little Rhein Legend
Bald gras’ ich am Neckar,
bald gras’ ich am Rhein;
bald hab’ ich ein Schätzel,
bald bin ich allein!
Was hilft mir das Grasen,
wenn d’Sichel nicht schneid’t;
was hilft mir ein Schätzel,
wenn’s bei mir nicht bleibt!
So soll ich denn grasen
am Neckar, am Rhein,
so werf’ ich mein goldenes
Ringlein hinein.
Es fließet im Neckar
und fließet im Rhein,
soll schwimmen hinunter
in’s Meer tief hinein.
Und schwimmt es, das Ringlein,
so frißt es ein Fisch!
Das Fischlein soll kommen
auf’s König’s sein Tisch!
Der König tät fragen,
wem’s Ringlein sollt’ sein?
Da tät mein Schatz sagen:
„Das Ringlein g’hört mein!“
Mein Schätzlein tät springen
Berg auf und Berg ein,
tät mir wied’rum bringen
das Goldringlein mein!
Kannst grasen am Neckar,
kannst grasen am Rhein!
Wirf du mir nur immer
dein Ringlein hinein!
Now I mow by the Neckar,
now I mow by the Rhine;
now I have a sweetheart,
now I’m alone!
What good is mowing
if the sickle doesn’t cut;
what good is a sweetheart,
if he/she doesn’t stay with me!
So should I then mow
by the Neckar, by the Rhine,
then I will throw
my little gold ring in.
It will float in the Neckar
and float in the Rhine,
it shall swim right down
into the deep sea.
And when it swims, the little ring,
then a fish will eat it!
The fish will land
on the king’s table!
The king would ask,
whose ring can it be?
Then my sweetheart would say:
‘The ring belongs to me!’
My sweetheart would spring
up hill and down hill,
would bring back to me
my fine little gold ring!
You can mow by the Neckar,
you can mow by the Rhine!
You can always toss in
your little ring to me!
______________________
Verlorne Müh’! / Wasted Effort
Sie: „Büble, wir!
Büble, wir wollen auße gehe!
Wollen wir?
Unsere Lämmer besehe?
Gelt! Komm! Komm! lieb’s Büberle,
komm’, ich bitt’!“
Er: „Närrisches Dinterle,
ich mag dich halt nit!“
Sie: „Willst vielleicht –
Willst vielleicht a bissel nasche?
Hol’ dir was aus meiner Tasch’!
Hol’, lieb’s Büberle,
hol’, ich bitt’!“
Er: „Närrisches Dinterle,
ich nasch’ dir halt nit!“
Sie: „Gelt, ich soll –
Gelt? ich soll mein Herz dir schenke?
Immer willst an mich gedenken.
Immer!
Nimm’s, lieb’s Büberle!
Nimm’s, ich bitt’!“
Er: „Närrisches Dinterle,
ich mag es halt nit!
nit!“
She: ‘Laddie, we!
Laddie, we want to go out!
Shall we?
Look at our lambs?
Come, come, dear laddie!
Come, I beg you!’
He: ‘Silly lassie,
I don’t like you at all!’
She: ‘You want perhaps –
You want perhaps a little bit to nibble?
Fetch yourself something out of my bag!
Fetch it, dear laddie!
Fetch it, I beg you!’
He: ‘Silly lassie,
I’ll nibble nothing of yours at all!’
She: ‘You mean, I should –
You mean, I should give you my heart!?
Always will you want to think on me.
Always!
Take it! Dear laddie!
Take it, I beg you!’
He: ‘Silly lassie,
I don’t care for it at all!
Nothing!’
______________________
Urlicht / Primal Light
O Röschen rot!
Der Mensch liegt in größter Not!
Der Mensch liegt in größter Pein!
Je lieber möcht’ ich im Himmel sein!
Da kam ich auf einen breiten Weg.
Da kam ein Engelein und wollt mich abweisen.
Ach nein! Ich ließ mich nicht abweisen!
Ach nein! Ich ließ mich nicht abweisen:
Ich bin von Gott, und will wieder zu Gott!
Der liebe Gott wird mir ein Lichtchen geben,
wird leuchten mir bis in das ewig selig Leben!
O little red rose!
Man lies in greatest need!
Man lies in greatest pain!
Even more would I rather be in heaven!
There I came upon a broad path.
There came an angel and wanted to turn me away.
Ah no, I would not be turned away!
Ah no, I would not be turned away:
I am from God and want to return to God!
The loving God will give me a little of the light,
will illuminate me into the eternal blessed life!
______________________
Das irdische Leben / The Earthly Life
„Mutter, ach Mutter, es hungert mich!
Gieb mir Brot, sonst sterbe ich!“
„Warte nur! Warte nur, mein liebes Kind!
Morgen wollen wir ernten geschwind!“
Und als das Korn geerntet war,
rief das Kind noch immerdar:
„Mutter, ach Mutter, es hungert mich!
Gieb mir Brot, sonst sterbe ich!“
„Warte nur! Warte nur, mein liebes Kind!
Morgen wollen wir dreschen geschwind!“
Und als das Korn gedroschen war,
rief das Kind noch immerdar:
„Mutter, ach Mutter, es hungert mich!
Gieb mir Brot, sonst sterbe ich!“
„Warte nur! Warte nur, mein liebes Kind!
Morgen wollen wir backen geschwind!“
Und als das Brot gebacken war,
lag das Kind auf der Totenbahr’!
‘Mother, oh mother, I’m hungry!
Give me some bread or I shall die!’
‘Just wait! Just wait, my dear child!
Tomorrow we shall hurry to harvest!’
And when the grain was harvested,
the child still cried out:
‘Mother, oh mother, I’m hungry!
Give me some bread or I shall die!’
‘Just wait! Just wait, my dear child!
Tomorrow we shall hurry and go threshing!’
And when the grain was threshed,
the child still cried out:
‘Mother, oh mother, I’m hungry!
Give me some bread or I shall die!’
‘Just wait! Just wait, my dear child!
Tomorrow we shall hurry and bake!’
And when the bread was baked,
the child lay on the funeral bier!
______________________
Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen / Where the Beautiful Trumpets Blow
Wer ist denn draußen und wer klopfet an,
der mich so leise wecken kann!?
Das ist der Herzallerlieble dein,
steh’ auf und laß mich zu dir ein!
Was soll ich hier nun länger steh’n?
Ich seh’ die Morgenröt’ aufgeh’n,
die Morgenröt’, zwei helle Stern’.
Bei meinem Schatz da wär ich gern’,
bei meinem Herzallerlieble.
Das Mädchen stand auf und ließ ihn ein;
sie heißt ihn auch willkommen sein.
Willkommen lieber Knabe mein,
so lang hast du gestanden!
Sie reicht’ ihm auch die schneeweiße Hand.
Von ferne sang die Nachtigall,
das Mädchen fängt zu weinen an.
Ach weine nicht, du Liebste mein,
auf’s Jahr sollst du mein Eigen sein.
Mein Eigen sollst du werden gewiß,
wie’s Keine sonst auf Erden ist!
O Lieb auf grüner Erden.
Ich zieh’ in Krieg auf grüne Haid,
die grüne Haide, die ist so weit!
Allwo dort die schönen Trompeten blasen,
da ist mein Haus,
mein Haus von grünem Rasen!
Who then is outside and who is knocking,
that can so softly awaken me?
It is your dearest darling,
get up and let me come to you!
Why should I go on standing here?
I see the red of morn arise,
the red of morn, two bright stars.
I long to be with my sweetheart!
With my dearest darling.
The maiden got up and let him in;
she bade him welcome, too.
Welcome, my dear lad!
You have been standing so long!
She offered him too her snow-white hand.
From far away the nightingale sang,
then the maiden began to weep.
Ah, do not weep, beloved mine
after a year you will be my own.
My own you shall certainly become,
as is no other on earth!
Oh love on the green earth.
I’m off to war, on the green heath,
the green heath is so far away!
Where there the fair trumpets sound,
there is my home,
my house of green grass!
______________________
Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht? / Who thought up this little song?
Dort oben am Berg
in dem hohen Haus,
in dem Haus!
Da gucket ein fein’s, lieb’s Mädel heraus!
Es ist nicht dort daheime!
Es ist des Wirt’s sein Töchterlein!
Es wohnet auf grüner Haide!
Mein Herzle is’ wundt!
Komm’, Schätzle, mach’s g’sund!
Dein’ schwarzbraune Äuglein,
die hab’n mich verwund’t!
Dein rosiger Mund
macht Herzen gesund.
Macht Jugend verständig,
macht Tote lebendig,
macht Kranke gesund,
ja gesund.
Wer hat denn das schön schöne Liedlein erdacht?
Es haben’s drei Gäns’ über’s Wasser gebracht!
Zwei graue und eine weiße!
Und wer das Liedel nicht singen kann,
dem wollen sie es pfeifen!
Ja!
Up there on the mountain,
in the high house,
in the house!
There peers out a fine, dear maiden!
There is not her home!
She is the innkeeper’s daughter!
She lives on the green heath!
My heart has a wound!
Come, sweetheart, make it well!
Your dark brown little eyes,
they have wounded me!
Your rosy mouth
makes hearts well.
It makes young people rational,
brings the dead back to life,
makes the ill healthy,
yes, healthy.
Who then thought up this pretty, pretty little song?
Three geese have brought it over the water!
Two grey and one white!
And whoever cannot sing this little song,
to him they will whistle it!
Yes –
______________________
Translations © 2002, Dr. Renate Stark-Voit and Thomas Hampson
