Das Marienleben, song cycle for soprano & piano, Op. 27
Paul Hindemith's song cycle Das Marienleben (The Life of Mary) has never been very well known outside the German-speaking sphere, despite the general popularity of the text author, Rainer Maria Rilke, and the centrality of the figure of Mary in American Catholicism. Part of the problem is the work's complex version history: Hindemith finished it in 1923 after various creative struggles, and promptly set about revising it; the second version did not appear until 1948 and reflected the more economical idiom of Hindemith's ...
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Paul Hindemith's song cycle Das Marienleben (The Life of Mary) has never been very well known outside the German-speaking sphere, despite the general popularity of the text author, Rainer Maria Rilke, and the centrality of the figure of Mary in American Catholicism. Part of the problem is the work's complex version history: Hindemith finished it in 1923 after various creative struggles, and promptly set about revising it; the second version did not appear until 1948 and reflected the more economical idiom of Hindemith's later career. The version performed here by soprano Juliane Banse and pianist Martin Helmchen vacillates between intense expressionist episodes and deliberate syllabic renditions of Rilke's poetry. What makes it work in an odd way is that Rilke's poetry itself can be approached in both these ways. Sample "Die Darstellung Maria im Tempel," which is considerably pared down in the later version. Here it takes a lot of wind and a lot of control from the soprano, both of which Banse...
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