vioro.co presents THE MARK IT LEAVES

Anna Kissjudit and Thomas Victor Johnson perform Respighi’s masterpiece ‘Il tramonto’ alongside works by Zoltán Kodály, Béla Bartók, Johannes Brahms, Giuseppe Verdi and Gustav Mahler.

Inheritor of more than earth can give,
Passionless calm and silence unreproved,
Whether the dead find, oh, not sleep! but rest,
And are the uncomplaining things they seem,
Or live, or drop in the deep sea of Love

In 1815, Percy Shelley was plagued by poor health and became convinced he was dying. In response, he wrote "The Sunset", a Gothic, angst-ridden poem that directly addressed his anxieties about how his death would affect his new wife, Mary Shelley. The poem describes a young couple, newly in love, walking amid a wooded forest, hoping to glimpse the setting sun. However, the young man dies, leaving the woman to spend the entirety of her life in a state of mourning.

The Italian composer Ottorino Respighi was enamored by Shelley’s poetry, and set an Italian translation of this poem to music in 1914. ‘Il tramonto’ feels more like a mini-opera than song, exploring in ravishingly beautiful strokes the delights of young love, but also the bitter dread of mortality.

• Programme

  Zoltán Kodály
  Fáj a szívem

  Béla Bartók
  Nyolc magyar népdal

  1. Fekete főd, fehér az én zsebkendőm

  2. Istenem, Istenem, áraszd meg a vizet

  3. Asszonyok, asszonyok, had’ legyek társatok

  4. Annyi bánat a szívemen

  5. Ha kimegyek arr’ a magos tetőre

  6. Töltik a nagyerdő útját

  7. Eddig való dolgom a tavaszi szántás

  8. Olvad a hó, csárdás kis angyalom

  Giuseppe Verdi
  Non t’accostare all’urna
  L’esule

  
  INTERVAL

  
  Ottorino Respighi
  Il tramonto

  Johannes Brahms
  Verzagen
  Alte Liebe
  Die Mainacht
  Von ewiger Liebe

  Gustav Mahler
  Urlicht

Bar @ 19:00 Arrive early and enjoy the food and drink offerings from Lobe Block

Music @ 20:00 The event will last approximately 90 minutes

Photos by @afrost6599