Download Woodward Lullabies Booklet

THE ROGER
WOODWARD EDITION
476 8791
Lullabies
PIANO MUSIC OF PEACE AND TRANQUILLITY
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JOHANNES BRAHMS 1833-1897
Lullaby Five Songs Op. 49 No. 4
2’01
2
JEAN SIBELIUS 1865-1957
Lullaby Pensées lyriques Op. 40 No. 5
1’39
3
ALEXANDER ILYINSKY 1859-1920
Lullaby
2’18
4
EDVARD GRIEG 1843-1907
Lullaby Lyric Pieces Op. 38 No. 1
5
JOHANNES BRAHMS
Waltz Op. 39 No. 15
^
3’07
4’03
&
SELIM PALMGREN 1878-1951
Finnish Lullaby
2’58
*
ROY AGNEW 1891-1944
Lullaby from Holiday Suite
2’01
The word ‘lull’ comes from the repetition of
syllables like ‘lu lu’ or ‘lully lully’ which might
gently send a child to sleep, and which are often
heard in old folk-songs, and ‘by’ as in ‘good-bye’.
A lullaby is a peaceful piece of music, designed
to make listeners feel safe, and to lend
sweetness to their dreams.
1’22
3’43
0’41
The word ‘lullaby’ may be English, but the
concept is universal, and composers throughout
the world and across the centuries have created
lullabies with which to hush their own children,
and those of others, softly to sleep.
%
2’56
1’57
(
7
FRANK HUTCHENS 1892-1965
The Dream Castle
from Three Little Sketches
Evening
1’52
2’41
)
¡
8
ALFRED HILL 1870-1960
Lullaby
2’58
™
9
GABRIEL FAURÉ 1845-1924
Lullaby Dolly Suite Op. 56 No. 1
3’12
#
¢
0
CÉSAR CUI 1835-1918
Lullaby
2’20
6
!
@
ALEXANDER BORODIN 1833-1887
Petite Suite (excerpts)
Daydreams
Nocturne
£
EDWARD MACDOWELL 1860-1908
Daydreams Forest Idylls Op. 19 No. 3
1’37
$
ROBERT FUCHS 1847-1927
Lullaby Op. 32
1’22
PYOTR IL’YICH TCHAIKOVSKY 1840-1893
Morning Prayer from Children’s Album
Op. 39 No. 1
Cradle Song Op. 16 No. 1
Waltz Op. 40 No. 9 (First version)
ROBERT SCHUMANN 1810-1856
Melody Album for the Young
Op. 68 No. 1
Evening Fantasy Pieces Op. 12 No. 1
Little Lullaby Album Leaves
Op. 124 No. 6
1’33
∞
FRANK HUTCHENS arr. Roger Woodward
Lullaby from Four Cameos
2’14
§
¶
•
MIRIAM HYDE 1913-2005
Forest Echoes Op. 12 (excerpts)
No. 1 Forest Echoes
No. 2 Lonely Trees
No. 4 The Quiet Meadow
0’57
1’22
1’17
1’57
2’21
Total Playing Time
Roger Woodward piano
2
Hush, little baby, don’t you cry
Mama’s gonna sing you a lullaby.
JOSEF SUK 1874-1935
Lullabies Op. 33 (excerpts)
No. 3 Lullaby – Sentimental self-parody
on a popular song
No. 1 Lullaby for Sleeping Children
1’18
3’51
63’45
due to an injury to his hand, he was married to
one, and taught his children to play. His Album
for the Young, a collection of 43 pieces, was
written for his three daughters. The composer
had eight surviving children, though he was
never to meet his last son, Felix, as he was
institutionalised, due to mental illness, before the
baby was born. No doubt Clara and the older
children, and perhaps Brahms himself, played
Schumann’s lullabies to his fatherless child.
Johannes Brahms, composer of four
symphonies, the great German Requiem and
concertos for violin and piano, among others, is
nonetheless most famous of all for his lullaby,
though many who hum it softly to their sleepy
children may not know its origins.
The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius wrote
complex orchestral works, and is not so well
known for his piano pieces, but his Lullaby
Op. 40 No. 5, written in 1913, just before the
world entered the turbulence of World War I,
is simple and sweet. His compatriot Selim
Palmgren was only 13 years younger, but his
work has always been in the shadows of the great
man of Finnish music. Palmgren, though, was an
accomplished pianist, while Sibelius was never
comfortable on the piano stool, and the younger
man produced a large number of piano works.
Brahms was 35 years old when he wrote the
piece, and had no children of his own. He never
married, but – apart from his enduring
admiration for Clara Schumann – he did have
love affairs, and one of those had been with
singer Bertha Porubzsky, who became Bertha
Faber. Brahms wrote his famous Wiegenlied, or
Lullaby, for her first child.
Alexander Ilyinsky was a Russian composer of
the late-Romantic era. Born in 1859, he studied
in Berlin and St Petersberg, and was well known
in his time as both a composer and teacher,
writing choral works, orchestral music and an
opera. He wrote several textbooks, including a
guide to orchestration which was still in use
many years after his death in 1920.
Although Brahms’ mentor Robert Schumann
was deprived of the ability to be a concert pianist
Rather more famous for his piano works was
the Norwegian Edvard Grieg, whose ten
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volumes of Lyric Pieces helped make him a
household name across Europe. Tragically, Grieg
had but a very short time to lull his own
daughter to sleep. His only child, she died in
1869, only 13 months old.
performer, teacher and broadcaster. His Holiday
Suite was first published in 1937.
Another Australian, Miriam Hyde, was born in
1913, in Adelaide, where she studied with
her mother before attending the Elder
Conservatorium and then travelling to London and
the Royal Academy of Music. She won prizes for
her compositions and performed as a soloist
there. For most of her life, she lived in Sydney
where she was a writer, composer and teacher.
Frank Hutchens was a New Zealander who
travelled to London when still in his early teens,
to study at the Royal Academy of Music. He
won numerous scholarships and prizes, and was
to become the youngest sub-professor ever,
being appointed at only 17 years of age. In 1915
he became Professor of Piano at the newlyestablished New South Wales Conservatorium
of Music, and was to teach there for 50 years.
Most of his compositions featured the piano.
Unhappily married, in the 1890s the Frenchman
Gabriel Fauré had a passionate affair with a
young woman named Emma Bardac. Married to a
banker, she had a daughter so small her
nickname was ‘Dolly’. Fauré wrote a set of six
pieces over the years, either inspired by the little
girl or as presents for her birthdays. Emma
Bardac eventually gained a divorce from her
husband and married another great composer,
Claude Debussy.
Like Hutchens, the prolific Australian composer
Alfred Hill was a founding professor at the
Conservatorium. He had a strong New Zealand
connection, too, though he was born in
Australia: he was brought up there until the age
of 15 when, again like Hutchens, he travelled to
the other side of the world. Hill went to Leipzig
at the age of 15, to study violin and composition,
and it was there he came into contact with great
masters including Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Grieg
and Brahms. He retired from teaching in 1930,
and concentrated entirely on composing. His
Lullaby can be found in many forms, including a
sung version and orchestrated versions, and
under many names. Among Hill’s students was
Roy Agnew, who later also studied in London
before returning to Australia and a life as a
Despite his French origins (his father was an
officer in the French army), César Cui was
known, along with Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov,
Balakirev and Mussorgsky, as one of ‘The Five’ –
composers dedicated to producing truly
‘Russian’ music. In addition to composing, Cui
was known for his often scathing music
reviews. He wrote a large number of works, but
is today best known as a miniaturist – both songs
and works for solo piano.
Alexander Borodin, like Cui, was taught by
Balakirev, and though he composed music all his
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Philomel, with melody,
Sing in our sweet lullaby;
Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby!
Never harm,
Nor spell nor charm,
Come our lovely lady nigh;
So, good night, with lullaby.
life, he made his living as a chemist. His soft
heart – he was known to take in homeless
college students, while his wife adopted stray
cats – is perhaps reflected in his gentle lullabies.
In his day, Edward MacDowell was
acknowledged as the greatest ever American
composer. A brilliant pianist, he studied in France
and Germany. Although his life was short, he
wrote over fifty compositions, many of them for
solo piano, and was one of the seven founders
of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. At
only 35, he was appointed the first head of
Columbia University’s Music Department.
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Justine Bashford
Like MacDowell, Austrian composer Robert
Fuchs was much honoured in his own country in
his lifetime. He was Professor of Music Theory at
the Vienna Conservatory, and taught composers
including Mahler, Sibelius and Korngold.
The Czech composer Josef Suk was a pupil of
Antonín Dvořák, and married his daughter. His
early works were influenced by his father-in-law,
and by Brahms, but as he grew older, his own
style became more evident.
Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky loved children, and,
though he had no children of his own, played a
strong parental role in the upbringing of his twin
younger brothers, and was adored uncle to his
sister’s children. Some of his music was
composed for their enjoyment. His sentimental
nature ideally suited him to writing and playing
lullabies with which to soothe them to sleep.
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Roger Woodward
for the bicentennial of the French Revolution,
with his works performed in the UK, Poland,
France, Spain and the Sydney Spring Festival of
New Music.
Roger Woodward
performs with the
Leipzig Gewandhaus
Orchestra, the
New York, Los
Angeles and Israel
Philharmonics,
Orchestre de Paris,
the Cleveland Orchestra, London orchestras and
the European Community Mahler Youth
Orchestra, with conductors such as Claudio
Abbado, Paavo Berglund, Pierre Boulez, Charles
Dutoit, Eliahu Inbal, James Judd, Erich Leinsdorf,
Lorin Maazel, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Roger
Norrington, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Witold
Rowicki, Walter Susskind, Georg Tintner, Edo de
Waart and Hans Zender. He has received
dedications from composers such as James
Dillon, Franco Donatoni, Morton Feldman, Arvo
Pärt, Horatiu Radulescu, Larry Sitsky, Tōru
Takemitsu and Iannis Xenakis and collaborated
with Gilbert Amy, Jean Barraqué, Luciano Berio,
Sylvano Bussotti, Pierre Boulez, John Cage,
Elliott Carter, Alberto Ginastera, Witold
Lutoslawski, Olivier Messiaen and Karl-Heinz
Stockhausen inter alia. The London Guardian has
described him as a “pianistic genius”; Le Monde
de la Musique, Paris, for his Debussy
performances, as “magnificent”; and the Denver
News as “a musician’s musician”.
His passion for chamber music has involved him
in performances with the Vienna Trio, the
Alexander, Arditti, Tokyo and Edinburgh String
Quartets and artists ranging from Frank Zappa to
violist James Creitz, violinists Federico Agostini,
Philippe Hirschhorn, Ivry Gitlis and Wanda
Wilkomirska, cellist Nathan Waks and
choreographer Graeme Murphy, Artistic Director
of the Sydney Dance Company. Roger
Woodward founded and directed the Alpha
Centauri Chamber Orchestra (Sydney), as well as
the London Music Digest, Kötschach-Mauthner
Musiktage, the annual Sydney Spring
International Festival of New Music and the
“Joie et Lumière” series in Burgundy. He is a
Fellow of the Chopin Institute, Warsaw, and a
former Chair of Music at the University of New
England and Director of the San Francisco State
University, where he is currently a professor.
His repertoire is prodigious and covers all styles
and periods with over one hundred recordings and
videos for Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, EMI,
RCA, BMG, Warner Classics, ABC Classics,
Etcetera Records BV (Holland), Polskie Nagrania,
CPO and Unicorn. He has performed at
international festivals on five continents, including
Sviatoslav Richter’s Festival at Grange de Meslay,
Tours, on several occasions. He has made
television documentaries for the BBC with
As a composer, Roger Woodward was
commissioned by the Festival d’Automne in Paris
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Xenakis and Boulez as well as video
documentaries with Stockhausen, Cage and Pärt.
Recording Producer Andrew McKeich
Recording Engineer Ron Craig
Mastering Albert Zychowski, Sony Music
In Sydney, Roger Woodward first studied organ
and church music with Kenneth Long at St
Andrew’s Cathedral before commencing piano
studies with Alexander Sverjensky (a pupil of
Rachmaninov) at the Sydney Conservatorium of
Music. There he also studied composition with
Raymond Hanson and conducting with Sir
Eugene Goossens before continuing piano
studies at the National Chopin Academy of
Music, Warsaw with Zbigniew Drzewiecki (a
pupil of Blumenthal and Paderewski and lifelong
friend of Szymanowski and Rubinstein).
For ABC Classics
Executive Producers Robert Patterson, Lyle Chan
Editorial and Production Manager Natalie Shea
Cover and Booklet Design Imagecorp Pty Ltd
Cover Painting Detail of Woman and Girl from
The Three Ages of Woman by Gustav Klimt.
Image © APL
Photo p.6 Roger Woodward photograph provided
courtesy of Patrick Togher Artists’ Management.
Recorded March 1996 and October 1995 (§-•)
at Ron Craig’s Acoustic Studio, Mittagong NSW.
Recipient of four doctorates from universities in
Australia and Canada, he earned his Doctorate
of Music with the Music Department of the
University of Sydney and is the author of
publications on Takemitsu, Feldman, Penderecki,
Beethoven’s 32 Piano Sonatas, Chopin,
Debussy, Barraqué, Xenakis and Sitsky; his most
recent project is a publication and international
festival dedicated to Skryabin and his impact on
the lost Russian avant garde of the 1920s.
Performed on a Steinway model D piano (1936).
Sound recordings originally released by Artworks
(Armchair Productions Pty Ltd) on AW004.
2000 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
© 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Distributed
in Australia by Universal Music Group, under exclusive
licence. Made in Australia. All rights of the owner of
copyright reserved. Any copying, renting, lending,
diffusion, public performance or broadcast of this record
without the authority of the copyright owner is prohibited.
He is the recipient of international distinctions
and awards for music as well as for human
rights, among them the Polish Order of Merit
and the award of the City of London. He is an
Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE),
Companion of the Order of Australia (AC),
Chevalier of the French Ordre des Arts et des
Lettres and was designated a National Treasure
by the Australian National Trust.
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