EARTHLY WOES

LAUREN DASAPPA & BENNIE VAN EDEN

Lauren Dasappa en Bennie van Eeden sal die gehoor betower met hul bekoorlike konsertprogram “Earthly Woes” op Dinsdag 8 Augustus 2017 om 19:30 in die Konservatoriumsaal by die NWU Skool vir Musiek in Potchefstroom. Hierdie program bestaan uit werke deur Brahms, Mozart, Poulenc en Barber en sluit Vier Weemoedige Liedjies in deur die Suid-Afrikaanse komponis Arnold Van Wyk.

Lauren Dasappa, ʼn dinamiese en toegewyde musikale kunstenaar, se ekspressiewe musiektalent raak vele fasette van ʼn gehoor aan. As bekroonde sopraan, oorspronklik van Durban, het sy al verskeie opera-rolle vertolk, asook oratoria en Barokwerke wat haar die geleentheid gee om saam met Barok- en filharmoniese orkeste te toer.Dasappa se ekstensiewe konsertrepertorium bestaan uit standaard- en moderne werke en ondersteun die herlewing van die Kunslied. Alhoewel Dasappa as klassieke sopraan opgelei is, is haar stem nie beperk tot klassieke musiek nie en het sy reeds ʼn Teatertoekenning ontvang vir Beste Ondersteunde Aktrise vir haar rol in ʼn musiekblyspel. Sy het ook ʼn internasionale platekontrak met Universal Studios wat reeds ʼn enkelsnit opgeneem en vrygestel het.

As veelsydige musikant, pianis en ervare onderwyser is Bennie van Eeden ook bekend vir sy solo- en kamermusiekuitvoerings, veral as lid van die hoogaangeskrewe Collage and Taffanel ensembles, aan wie Suid-Afrikaanse komponiste Hendrik Hofmeyr en Alexander Johnson trio’s opgedra het. Bennie het in sy loopbaan as gesogte pianis al van Suid-Afrika se voorste sangers begelei, waaronder Marita Napier, Nellie du Toit, Aviva Pelham, Sabina Mossolow en André Howard; asook internasionale sangers soos die Duitse sopraan Julia Bronkhorst. Bennie is een van die stigterslede van die Hennie Joubert Nasionale Klavierkompetisie en tree steeds op as beoordelaar en organiseerder van hierdie gesogte kompetisie.

Kaartjies teen R80/R50 is beskikbaar by die Konservatorium in Thabo Mbeki-weg (tel. 018-299-1692), PUK-Kunste in die Heimatgebou (F9) op die universiteitskampus (tel. 018-299-2844), Protea Boekwinkel op die Bult (tel. 018-297-1583), aanlyn by www.artema.co.za en www.facebook.com/NWU.Music, of 30 minute voor die konsert by die loket.

Lauren Dasappa and Bennie van Eeden will delight audience members with their charming concert programme “Earthly Woes” on Tuesday 8 August 2017 at 19:30 in the Conservatory Hall at the NWU School of Music in Potchefstroom. This programme contains works by Brahms, Mozart, Poulenc, Barber and includes Vier Weemoedige Liedjies by South African composer Arnold Van Wyk.

Durban born soprano, Lauren Dasappa, is a dynamic and committed musical artist exhibiting expressive music-making that deeply touches the emotions of audiences, connecting with people from all walks of life. She has performed numerous operatic roles in addition to many oratorio and Baroque works which allow her the opportunity of touring with Baroque and Philharmonic orchestras. Dasappa maintains an extensive concert repertoire of standard and modern works and is profoundly supportive of the revival as well as education of Art Song. Dasappa's voice, although classically trained, is not limited to classical music, as she has extended herself to lighter works, winning a Theatre award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in a musical. She has similarly excelled in popular music and was awarded an international recording contract with Universal Studios which culminated in a recorded single.

As a versatile musician, performer and experienced teacher, Bennie van Eeden is also known for his solo and chamber music performances, especially as member of the highly regarded Collage and Taffanel ensembles, to whom trio’s by South African composers Hendrik Hofmeyr and Alexander Johnson have been dedicated.  As an acclaimed pianist, he has also accompanied some of South Africa’s foremost singers, including Marita Napier, Nellie du Toit, Aviva Pelham, Sabina Mossolow and André Howard, and international singers such as the Dutch soprano, Julia Bronkhorst.He is a founder member of the Hennie Joubert National Piano Competition and has since been involved in adjudicating and organizing this prestigious event.

Tickets are available at R80/R50 at the Conservatory in Thabo Mbeki Drive (tel. 018-299-1692), PUK-Kunste at the Heimat building (F9) on campus (tel. 018-299-2844), Protea Bookshop on the Bult (tel. 018-297-1583), online at www.artema.co.za, www.facebook.com/NWU.Music, or 30 minutes before the concert at the ticket office.

BACKGROUND

Bennie van Eden

Bennie van Eeden obtained the Teacher’s Diploma, BMus and HonsBMus degrees cum laude from Stellenbosch University, having passed all his UNISA piano examinations with distinction.  As a student he received numerous prizes and awards, most notably the FAK Music Bursary (twice), the Conservatoire Stipendium and a Merit Award for the best overall fourth year student at the university.  He also obtained the LTCL and UPLM diplomas. He taught at the Wellington Teachers’ Training College for ten years, and since 1988 has been appointed as lecturer in Piano and Piano Literature at Stellenbosch, filling the post of his erstwhile teacher, Betsie Cluver.

Bennie also studied with some of South Africa’s foremost pianists and teachers, viz. Lamar Crowson and Laura Searle (UCT) and John Antoniadis (US), under whose guidance he completed the practical component of the MMus in Piano Performance.  He participated in international piano competitions in Bolzano and Pretoria. He has also acted regularly as Faculty member at several International Piano Symposia and the International Chamber Music Festivals in Stellenbosch.

A versatile musician, performer and experienced teacher, Bennie is also known for his solo en chamber music performances, especially as member of the highly regarded Collage and Taffanel ensembles, to whom trio’s by South African composers Hendrik Hofmeyr and Alexander Johnson have been dedicated.  He has also accompanied some of South Africa’s foremost singers, including Marita Napier, Nellie du Toit, Aviva Pelham, Sabina Mossolow and André Howard, and international singers such as the Dutch soprano, Julia Bronkhorst.

He has been featured on the SABC and regularly performs at major art festivals around South Africa.  He is a founder member of the Hennie Joubert National Piano Competition and has since been involved in adjudicating and organizing this prestigious event.

Lauren Dasappa

Durban born soprano, Lauren Dasappa is a dynamic and committed musical artist exhibiting expressive music-making that deeply touches the emotions of audiences, connecting with people from all walks of life.
Dasappa has performed numerous operatic roles in addition to many oratorio and Baroque works which allow her the opportunity of touring with Baroque and Philharmonic orchestras. Dasappa maintains an extensive concert repertoire of standard and modern works and is profoundly supportive of the revival as well as education of Art Song.

Dasappa's voice, although classically trained, is not limited to classical music, as she has extended herself to lighter works, winning a Theatre award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in a musical. She has similarly excelled in popular music and was awarded an international recording contract with Universal Studios which culminated in a recorded single. Dasappa conducts vocalworkshops, coaches vocal ensembles and soloists for major productions in addition to adjudicating Eisteddfods and competitions nationally. She is also deeply passionate about community development and is engaged in projects that assist in nurturing young singers. Her dedication to her
musical career both when she takes to the stage and to her students, is reflected and reciprocally amplified by her performances and the immense results achieved from her students at Stellenbosch University's music department, where she currently lectures in Voice.

PROGRAMME

Lauren Dasappa, Soprano

Bennie van Eeden, Piano

Basta vincesti…Ah non lasciarmi, no                                 W. A. Mozart(1756-1791)        

Op. 105                                                                                 J. Brahms(1833-1897)

Wie Melodien zieht es mir

Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer

Klage

Auf dem Kirchhofe

Verrat

Airs Chantés                                                      F. Poulenc (1927-1928)

Air Romantique                                                                   

Air Champêtre                                     

Air Grave                              

Air Vif    

Despite and Still                                                 S. Barber (1910-1981)

A Last Song                                                                                                                                          

My Lizard

In The Wilderness

Solitary Hotel

Despite And Still

Vier Weemoedige Liedjies                                             A. Van Wyk (1916-1983)

Vaalvalk                                                                                                                                            

Eerste Winterdag

In die Stilte van my Tuin

Koud is die Wind

PROGRAMME NOTES

W. A. Mozart (1756-91)

‘Basta vincesti… Ah non lasciarmi, no’ (K486a/295a)

Mozart wrote at least four ‘aria scenes’ based on extracts from librettos by Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782), in addition to the full-length opera La clemenza di Tito. The setting of single arias for concert performance had become something of a fashion in Mozart’s Mannheim, and these settings often featured full orchestral accompaniment. ‘Basta vincesti’, in its original setting, was written for a complement of strings, two flutes, two bassoons, and two horns. The text was lifted from the second act of Metastasio’s libretto Didone abbandonata (‘Dido’s Abandonment’, 1724), dealing with the love between Aeneas, a hero of the Trojan Wars, and Dido, Queen of Carthage. This same topic is best-known musically in the form of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (1688). Mozart, however, took his inspiration not from Purcell, but rather from hearing the Metastasian setting of galant composer Baldassare Galuppi (1706-85). Mozart wrote the scene in 1778 for Dorothea Wendling (1736-1811), a singer at the Mannheim court who was married to the court flautist, Johann Baptist Wendling. Both would later perform for the premiere of Mozart’s Idomeneo.

As background to the scene, Aeneas is determined to settle without Dido in a new land with the heroes of the Trojan War. To spite him, the forsaken Dido has recently accepted an alternative marriage proposal. In Mozart’s chosen setting, she appeals to Aeneas not to leave, and offers her freshly-signed marriage agreement as his to destroy. Toward the end of the scene, she hints at her eventual suicide.

Johannes Brahms (1833-97)

Five Songs, op. 105

Although lieder were something of an obsession for German composers in the 19^th century, there were many and varied approaches to setting poetry to music. Brahms’s lieder represented a more thematically and musically independent approach to setting poetry than, say, that of Hugo Wolf. With Brahms, there was always a separation between the music and the literal meaning of any particular part of the text—Brahms was no word-painter or musical dramaticist. He thought that any lied’s musical setting had to be able to stand independent of the text, as a worthwhile piece of music in and of itself. Nonetheless, Brahms took great care in selecting suitable verse for his more-than 200 lieder.

Brahms didn’t just set the ‘classic’ German poets, like Möricke, Goethe and Heine. His Five Songs, op. 105, are evidence of this. The first song is based on a text by Klaus Groth, a professor of German literature who usually wrote in Low German; the second is based on verse by Brahms’s direct contemporary, the soldier and poet Hermann Ritter von Lingg. The text for the third lied in the set was lifted from the folk song collection of Kretzschmer and Zuccalmaglio (published in two volumes, 1838 and 1840), reflecting a typically Romantic German-nationalist interest in the poetry of the ‘folk’. Interestingly, Kretzschmer and Zuccalmaglio were accused of writing several of these folk songs themselves. The fourth song features a text by the more well-known lyric poet Detlev von Liliencron, yet another writer with a military background. The final text is by Carl von Lemcke, also known as the novelist Karl Manno (or as the poet ‘Hyena’), who fittingly came to embrace realism in poetry in place of Romanticism. The lieder in Brahms’s op. 105 set were written between 1886 and 1888, and are all essentially strophic in setting (that is, they feature repeated ‘verses’ with minor modifications). Thematically, the texts Brahms selected are concerned with regret over lost love, and a realisation of the inevitable approach of death.

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)

Air Chantés

French composer and member of the French group Les Six, Jean Marcel Poulenc is regarded by many musicians and critics as the natural successor to the great composers of the French art song and is considered by many to be the last great proponent of the genre. Certainly his legacy of 150 mélodies forms the last important group of songs that enhanced that repertoire in the twentieth century. His abundant song output is marked by a versatility that prompted composer Virgil Thomson to declare him “incontestably the greatest writer of mélodies in our time. Poulenc possesses an intuitive approach to song composition. His vocal works were specifically linked with a number of poets. But, no matter whose text he set, Poulenc closely matched the music to the poet’s particular style. Poulenc composed music in various genres including art song, solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music. Air Chantés is based on poetry by Jean Moréas, a Greek poet. Poulenc moved away from exclusive Impressionism and led French music into the modern age with geometric forms and polytonally organized harmonies, a stimulating phase of musical development. In this cycle, he also makes use of word painting i.e. a compositional technique, that musically reflects the literal meaning of words within a song. Air Chantés is a delightful song cycle centered on the beauty of nature.

Samuel Barber (1910 -81)

Despite and Still, Op. 41

Despite and Still was composed in June 1968 and was first premiered on April 27, 1969, by Leontyne Price in New York. The cycle was written during a difficult time in Barber’s life. Although originally criticized for its unrelated poetry, it was later understood as the themes of lost love, loneliness, and reclusion which could all be considered as glimpses into the later years of Barber’s life. Certain passages take up religious themes, in which Barber also became increasingly interested near the end of his life.

The musical setting for Despite and Still differ considerably from his other works of earlier songs in that they are vocally and intellectually considerably more demanding. In addition, Barber abandoned his more usual lyrical style in these songs, which tend to be more chromatic and dissonant than his earlier works. The piece can be described as having an indistinct tonality. At many points, multiple chords are played at once and the music rapidly modulates. The first song of the cycle is based on a poem by Robert Graves. The poem is called A Last Poem, but the song is titled A Last Song. The text can be interpreted as expressing the feelings of an artist being pushed to continually produce creative work even into old age. The music is dramatic until the end section, in which the speaker wishes for the "whisper" of a muse. The second song, My Lizard, based on a poem by Theodore Roethke, is a lightly textured song in which the speaker cynically hopes that his young love lives long and happily after he is gone. The third song, based on another poem by Graves, In the Wilderness, has its focus on the suffering of Jesus. The fourth song is not based on a poem but rather on a paragraph from James Joyce's Ulysses, and is titled Solitary Hotel.  It helps illustrate the loneliness and separation of an old man and is driven by a tango accompaniment. The final song is based on another Graves poem that lends its name to the title of the piece, Despite and Still. This song is a story of two lovers who cannot be together because of their personal differences.

Arnold Van Wyk (1916-83)

Vier Weemoedige Liedjies                                                                                       

Arnold(us) Christiaan Vlock Van Wyk, although exposed to composition at an early age, received no formal instruction until 1938. It is said that the ‘Vier weemoedige liedjies’ (Four Sad Little Songs), of his early works are regularly performed.” The evocation of atmosphere and representation of the poetry is of the utmost importance, indicative of a fascination with impressionism and the tonal changes present in 20th century harmonic treatment at the time. The ‘Vier weemoedige liedjies’ published in 1947 “were not considered by Van Wyk to be a song cycle, but are four pieces that share a single mood.”   According to Howard Ferguson these songs are subtle and simple in construction but overshadow the composer’s mature style, a topic which is of greater importance to most scholars.  Although the ‘Vier weemoedige liedjies’ which Van Wyk began writing at the age of 18 are impressionistic in both color and construction, they are not stagnant. They each evoke the same singular mood but hold our interest throughout. The poetry of the first two songs is by W. E. G. Louw, a poet known for having made a radical break from the strict prosody of earlier Afrikaans poetry.  Louw’s nature poems utilize subtle verse movement within the framework of sophisticated impressionistic poetry, endowing it with refined imagery.  I. D. du Plessis’ contribution to the final two songs which were set earlier are more original than the poetry of the earlier Afrikaans poets, but exhibit a greater sense of romanticism than the poems of W. E. G. Louw, utilizing exotic words and images to depict daily life and loneliness.