In Rotation: LHL

LHL gets her own In Rotation post. Click here for background on the list.

Lorraine Hunt Lieberson: Bach Cantatas, BWV 82 and 199	Lorraine Hunt: Arias for Durastanti (Handel)	Lorraine Hunt: Live from Wigmore Hall	Hunt, McGegan: Anna Magdalena Bach Notebook	Lorraine Hunt Lieberson/ Bicket: Handel Arias

Lorraine Hunt, Kent Nagano: Phaedra (Britten)	Upshaw, Hunt Lieberson, White/ Nagano: El Niño (Adams)	Lorraine Hunt/ McGegan: Handel Arias	Lorraine Hunt, BSO/ Ozawa: Pelléas et Mélisande (Fauré)	Hunt, Les Arts Florissants: Médée (Charpentier)

Perry, Perry, Hunt, Labelle (dir. Sellars): Don Giovanni (Mozart)	Hunt, et al./ Norrington: The Fairy Queen (Purcell)	SF Symph, Bayrakdarian, Hunt Lieberson/ MTT: Mahler, Symph No. 2	Upshaw, Hunt, Daniels, Croft/ Christie (dir. Sellars): Theodora (Handel)	Hunt, Saffer, Dean/ McGegan: Dido and Aeneas (Purcell)

Kurt Ollman, Lorraine Hunt: Kerner Lieder, Mignon Lieder (Schumann)	Hunt, Feldman, Minter/ McGegan: Clori, Tirsi e Fileno (Handel)	Hunt, Feldman, Minter, Parker/ McGegan: Susanna - Highlights (Handel)

The first recording of hers I ever got was the compilation of Handel arias that she recorded with Nic McGegan and Philharmonia Baroque in the late '80s/early '90s. It's impossible to say how many times I've listened to that recording, and yet I never cease to find something to marvel at. How often do you actually look forward to a da capo?

The most astonishing recital I've ever witnessed was her performance at Hertz Hall in Berkeley on a Sunday afternoon in September 2002. For two hours she and we collectively faced our mortality straight on. It was harrowing, exhausting, and profoundly moving. Afterwards, several friends and I gathered outside and sat in silence for around half an hour, recovering and reflecting. The final piece on the program (prior to the three encores, PDF here) was "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen," from Mahler's Rückert-Lieder. I'm glad to have a recording of her 1998 Wigmore performance of these songs.

Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen,
     I am lost to the world
Mit der ich sonst viele Zeit verdorben,
     with which I used to waste so much time,
Sie hat so lange nichts von mir vernommen,
     It has heard nothing from me for so long
Sie mag wohl glauben, ich sei gestorben!
     that it may very well believe that I am dead!

Es ist mir auch gar nichts daran gelegen,
     It is of no consequence to me
Ob sie mich für gestorben hält,
     Whether it thinks me dead;
Ich kann auch gar nichts sagen dagegen,
     I cannot deny it,
Denn wirklich bin ich gestorben der Welt.
     for I really am dead to the world.

Ich bin gestorben dem Weltgetümmel,
     I am dead to the world's tumult,
Und ruh' in einem stillen Gebiet!
     And I rest in a quiet realm!
Ich leb' allein in meinem Himmel,
     I live alone in my heaven,
In meinem Lieben, in meinem Lied!
     In my love and in my song!

Comments

[theo]

thank you for the beautiful overview of LHL
albums. Last winter I bought a 2nd Hand Harmonia Mundi CD on wich she sang 3 pieces.
Reading a bunch of old newspapers I red her In memoriam here in the netherlands and went straigt to a shop to order 2 albums and to the public library to rent 2 others.
For quite a number of hours a was surfing the net for information before I heard the radio open source interview via your W Blog
Thank you very much,
Theo Hooij