John Tavener: Akhmatova Songs Part 2

Sir John Tavener -- Akhmatova Songs (1993)
Performed by Emma Baker-Spink (soprano) and Dale Rickert (cello)
www.ikonmusic.com.au

The six poems I that I have chosen from Akhmatova were written at different periods in her life. The first three suggest her veneration of other poets - Dante, Pushkin and Lermontov, and Pasternak. In the central poem, Couplet, she mistrusts praise of her own work. Then comes her own longing to write, as the Muse comes. The last poem,
Death, looks forward to her own death (with the suggestion of a personal after-life); its inevitability, and her own longing for it.

In my settings for soprano and cello I have tried to reflect the deceptive simplicity of the verse, which stems from classical tradition. In the final song, Death, the musical material of the earlier songs is gathered together. Then the poet bids a painful farewell to her beloved homeland, and steps in to the 'cabin' that has been particularly prepared for her.

Notes by Sir John Tavener


Akhmatova texts - translated from the Russian by Mother Thekla
Orthodox Monastery of the Assumption. Normanby, Whitby, North Yorkshire.

I Dante (1936)
And even after death he did not return
to Florence, his of old.
In going, he gave no backward glance,
to him I sing this song......
From hell he sent his curses upon her,
and in heaven he could not forget her.....

II Pushkin and Lermontov (1927)

Here began Pushkin's exile
and Lermontov's exile ended
Here gentle scent of mountain grasses,
and only once I managed to see
beside the lake, in plane tree's thickest shade
In that cruel hour before the evening -
the blaze of his eyes unquenched,
The deathless lover of Tamara.





III Boris Pasternak (1936)

Endowed with some eternal childhood,
he shone open-handed, clean of sight,
The whole earth was his heritage,
And this with all he shared.

IV Couplet (1924)

For me praise from others- as ashes,
But from you even blame - is praise.

V Death (1942)

I was on the border of something...
which has no certain name....
I say to her: "Did you dictate to Dante
The script of Hell?"
She answers: "I".