Dove Sta Amour

Notes on the Program

by Steven Blier

The leading players on tonight’s program are two composers from the Americas and two from Europe. Each artist’s music bears such a strong imprint of his homeland as to seem a veritable textbook illustration of its national origins. Even though their artistic sensibilities and palettes couldn’t be more different, López-Buchardo, Musto, Poulenc, and Strauss make for an interestingly balanced menu; they all take song seriously, and have devoted some of their finest inspiration to the human voice. There is another thing they have in common: all four were married--or, in Poulenc’s case, closely tied--to singers, and  formed artistic partnerships with their mates. Not only did they create the major part of their songs for them, but Poulenc, Strauss and Musto continued these collaborations on the concert stage as noted accompanists for their  works. Their piano writing bears the unmistakable idiosyncrasies of their own hands (and in the case of Poulenc, feet--who could forget the combination of clarity and haziness created by his pedaling?)

The subject on the table is Love--appropriate enough for music inspired by a composer’s partner. But the discussion will be far-ranging, from courtship and romance, to family and children, to the search for the very source of love within oneself.

The dark horse in the group is the Argentinean composer Carlos López-Buchardo (1881-1948). He began his musical studies in his native Buenos Aires, went to Paris for a brief period (like so many musicians of his generation) to study with Albert Roussel, and returned home to make his career as composer and teacher. There he rose to great prominence in both fields, founding conservatories in Buenos Aires and La Plata, serving two stints with the Teatro Colón (first heading the music school, later joining the board of directors), and officiating as director of musical theater for the Ministry of Justice and Public Education. His wife was the singer Brígida Frías de López Buchardo, for whom he wrote his songs. He was probably best-known for his three musical comedies, written in the 1930’s, but his earliest success was the 1914 Italian opera Il Sogno di Alma, which imitates the tuneful sweep of a Puccini score.

The complete notes are now available for purchase.