Classical Music | Baritone

Recorded on 07/01/2010, uploaded on 10/24/2011

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Between 1890 and 1896, Hugo Wolf produced the forty-six songs that make his Italienisches Liederbuch (Italian Songbook). The first twenty-two were composed between September 1890 and December 1891, and make up Volume I of the collection. They were published in 1892. Volume II, consisting of the remaining twenty-four songs, was composed in 1896. Despite this lengthy hiatus between the two volumes, Wolf managed to achieve a remarkably unified style across the entire collection. In part, this was due to the nature of the texts. Wolf selected the poems to set to music from a collection of anonymous Italian poetry translated into German by Paul Heyse, who also translated many of the poems in his Spanisches Liederbuch.

In “Dass doch gemalt all deine Reize wären” (“If only your charms were painted”), the ninth song of Volume I, the poet praises the beauty of his beloved to such length that he imagines if some heathen prince discovered a portrait of her, his entire kingdom would have to convert to Christianity to be worthy enough to love her. Wolf’s setting is full of admiration and devotion, yet at times betrays a sense of pride. In F major, the expressive vocal melody is supported by a fervent chordal accompaniment in the right hand of the piano while the left provides a sturdy bass sounded predominantly in octaves. Towards the end of the poem, when a proclamation is to go throughout the prince’s land that all most become Christians in order to love the woman in the portrait, the bass announces a majestic fanfare-like motif that quickly brings the song to its climax. From a stately fortissimo, the music quickly recedes, and the song comes to close quietly with echoes of the fanfare.        Joseph DuBose

The Steans Music Institute is the Ravinia Festival's professional studies program for young musicians.