ALBUM 1: Hanneli Rupert
Hanneli performs songs by Johannes Brahms, accompanied by Geoffrey Parsons, and songs by Arnold van Wyk, accompanied by the composer.
The eleven Brahms songs chosen for this record are taken from nine of the sixteen sets he published between 1868 and 1889. With the exception of Auf dem Kirchhofe (In the churchyard), they are all love songs, but there is no lack of variety, for they range from disillusion and despair, through artless happiness, to sheer ecstasy.
Arnold van Wyk’s compositions include The Vier Weemoedige Liedjies (Four Sad Little Songs). They show the distinctive harmonic and melodic features of his very individual style. Van Liefde en Verlatenheid (Of Love and Forsakenness) was composed in 1953. The treatment of voice and piano is masterly, and reflects unerringly the mystery, tenderness and power of Marais’s superb poems.