I managed to get a selection of songs recorded on Sunday before having to go up to hospital for my X-ray. Here are the first two and I hope that you like them. To play them just select the song title using the media player on the right hand sidebar 🙂 ( if you are using a smart phone the player will be under the post ).
The first is a favourite song of mine “Widmung” written by Robert Schumann which can be translated to mean “Dedication” and is based around a poem written by Friedrich Ruckert. Schumann composed this song as one of five songs created as a song cycle and presented as a gift to his wife to be, Clara Wieck.
The lyrics of the song provide the means for Schumann to capture the way that Clara made him feel. He expresses that Clara is his peace, angel, repose, rapture, heart, soul, grave for sorrows, better self and his heaven. A truly beautiful lieder and I hope that I do it justice.
The second song is “Per la Gloria d’adorarvi” written by Giovanni Bononcini from his opera, Griselda. The song’s title translates too “For the glory of adoring you” and is sung by the character Ernesto at the point that he thinks he is to lose the love of his life, Almirena, to the king. This arrangement is for a soprano and was a lovely song to work on with my teacher, Kath.
By the way Kath if you are listening to these recordings please remember that I was singing through the pain barrier because of my poorly foot 🙁
Many thanks to my good friend Danielle DiDonato who accompanied me brilliantly on these songs. Sadly she flies home to the USA this week and I would like to wish her every success for the future.