Halloween felt so over-the-top this year, maybe because it’s my first in San Francisco — where people seem really into it — and also probably because since it was a Monday, I saw people out Fri/Sat/Sun and Monday. Since when does Halloween justify a four day weekend?
I was more or less ignoring it but since my class was very small at the Lotus, I asked for requests — even for music — and when someone said classical, I immediately went to Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson and her recording of two Bach cantatas. BEYOND anything, really.
Like many, I’m kind of obsessed with these since Terrence introduced me to them.
Here’s what Anthony Tommasini wrote in his July 5, 2006 obituary in The New York Times: “Though her work seldom drew less than raves from critics, her singing eluded description. Despite the gleaming richness of her sound, her voice somehow conveyed poignant intimacy. Although she paid scrupulous attention to rhythm, phrasing and text, she came across as utterly spontaneous. Her person disappeared into her performances. And yet in a Handel aria, a Britten cantata, or a song by her husband, she could be so revealing you sometimes wanted to avert your eyes for fear of intruding.”
LHL recorded these two Bach cantatas during her prime and her singing is spectacular but it’s shockingly intimate.
The first cantata — Iche Habe Genug — is literally “I have enough.” It’s a plea for dying complete with life. The second — Mein Herze Schwimmt Im Blut — means “My Heart is Swimming in Blood” (Wow!) and is similar in text. Nothing in Bach goes deeper musically/lyrically. Some feel they touch on despair but others like Schweitzer say they represent transcendent joy (I am in the latter group.)
There’s an added level of appreciation in that Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson died shortly thereafter of breast cancer at an early age. During a period of remission (everyone knew about her illness) she performed both these cantatas on stage under Peter Seller’s direction.
The first, “I have enough,” he set in an intensive care ward; she sang the whole thing in a hospital room and gown with an IV attached to her. Try as I might, I couldn’t find a good photo of that performance, just some shaky video grabs — but this one shows her in the completely unflattering hospital gown she worn.
In the second, “My Heart Is Swimming In Blood,” she was dressed very Kabuki-style, with red streamers etc. surrounding her. Obviously, the live performances were devastating (I wasn’t there and I’m devastated by the idea of them.)
As the great soprano Dawn Upshaw said of LLH in these: “That is the most touching performance of anything ever! It’s about fear and anguish, but the way Lorraine sings made it soothing. It was a blessing.”
I actually couldn’t have planned better Halloween yoga music.
Seemingly gory (“My Heart Is Swimming in Blood”) and death-related, yet utterly, totally, and perfectly transcendent.
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