World premiere recording of romantic, impassioned Italian arias, gallant baroque violin trio and solo sonatas, and bacchanalian English music by the 18th century's mysterious "Wonderman of Europe," le Comte de St. Germain.

13 MP3 Songs in this album (67:05) !
Related styles: Classical: Arias, Classical: Sonata, Mood: Virtuoso

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Le Comte de St. Germain: Musique Raisonnée

After collecting dust in Europe's museums for over 200 years, the music of the mysterious Comte de St. Germain whom Voltaire called the "man who never dies and knows everything" has been showcased in a first-ever professional digitial recording featuring New York's distinguished St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble on period instruments.

On par with compositions by Bach's sons, Telemann, Le Clair, and Quantz, St. Germain's music entertained royalty, noblemen and the citizenry of Europe for the better part of the 18th Century. His known output is comprised of 13 violin sonatas; a collection of over 42 arias; many English songs -- the best of which are featured in the new 65 minute recording from Blue Sword Entertainment. The composer was rightly termed the "Wonderman of Europe" by those who knew him across European, Asian, African, and North American continents as musician, poet, artist, chemist, linguist, historian, industrialist, philanthropist, diplomat, and peacemaker for the Crowned Heads. Perhaps the most comprehensive statement describing St. Germain is contained in a letter dated April 15, 1758, written by Voltaire to the Emperor Frederick of Prussia: "He is a man who never dies and knows everything."

St. Germain was on intimate terms with royalty, and luminaries such figures as Pitt, Casanova, Chatham, and Walpole, and his access to people of this station fueled speculation about his being of noble birth. Napoleon also had a profound interest in him. St. Germain was made an honorary Russian General by Catherine the Great for what she termed the influential role he played in the Russian Revolution. Despite his exclusive relations with the mighty, St. Germain was ever helping the poor -- dispensing money, herbal remedies, building hospitals, and creating industrial processes to make affordable fabrics and brilliant colors which previously had only been accessible to the well to do.

While St. Germain's lineage and activities remain clouded in speculation, his music provides us with a tangible and uniquely personal window into his accomplishments as a composer and musician. Casanova, who rarely praised anybody but himself, admitted that St. Germain was a "grand musician." Von Arneth from Brussels wrote : "If the conversation was about music, he talked about it with the knowledge of a master and would seat himself at the piano and play his own compositions." Rameau was reported to have admired his preludes. German historian E.M. Oettinger commented: "Just as great and worthy of admiration was the musical genius of the Comte. He played almost all instruments, but above all the violin with such consummate mastery that one believed oneself to be listening to a second Maestro Tartini." St. Germain's virtuosity was considered on par with that of Paganini by those who had heard both perform.

In England, Horace Walpole said of him: "He sings and plays on the violin wonderfully." At the time of his brief second sojourn in England, he is described in a newspaper article as "a virtuoso in musik." The London Chronicle for 3 June, 1760, contained the following note: "At the time of his first visit to England, he found us mad about music and enchanted us with his talents on the violin; talents so pronounced that one might say that he must have been born with that instrument in his hand. Italy deemed him equal to her virtuosos...in whichever art he wished to shine, he always appeared as if he had never done anything else. In music, for instance, playing and composing with equal facility and success, his conversation was always relative to that art and sprinkled with similes borrowed from the language of music...With regard to music, he not only played but composed; and both in high taste. Nay, his very ideas were accommodated to the art; and in those occurrences which had no relation to music he found means to express himself in figurative terms deduced from this science."

St. Germain's true identity and heritage remain to this day a mystery, though theories abound. St. Germain biographer Jean Overton Fuller, examined all reliable evidence and believed him to be the last of the Hungarian Rakoczys. She drafted a short essay on his music for this, the first professional production of his music:

Forward, by Jean Overton Fuller:

In the house of Richmond, by the Thames, that belonged to Heidegger, one sees, painted in oils on the pinewood wall over the sitting-room door, the opening bars and words of Per pietà bel idol mio. It May be natural, one reflects, for a retired Opera house manager to have painted in his home the reminder of a great popular hit, only it was performed not in his own Opera house, the Kingâs, but in its smaller rival, the Little, on the opposite side of the Haymarket.

It was, Charles Burney who tells us in his history of Music, encored every night. Only, Burney was mistaken in describing as a pasticcio LâInconstaza delusa, in which it was sung. LâInconstanza delusa was an opera by Brivio, which he had already presented at his own Opera house, the Scala, Milan. Why, for its presentation in London, it was enriched by the inclusion of three arias by Saint-Germain we do not know, but it must have been by Brivioâs invitation. The words of this one are, in Italian:

Per pietà bel Idol mio
Non mi dir che sono ingrato
Infelice sventurato
Abbastanza il Ciel mi fa
Infelice sventurato

Se fedele a te son io
Semi struggo a tuoi bei lumi
Fallo amor
Lo fallo I numi
Il mio cor
Il tuo lo fa

The key is F, changing to F Minor with the second verse.

The meaning of the words is, in my translation:

For pityâs sake, beautiful Idol mine,
Tell me not I am unwelcome
Unhappy, misadventured
It is enough that Heaven renders me
Wretched, unfortunate,

So faithful to you am I,
I faint in your beautiful beams.
Love does it.
The gods do it.
My heart,
Your heart, does it.

The libretto, here so beautifully sung by Julianne Baird, would have been sung originally either by Giulia Frasi or Caterina Galli. These two sopranos were always singing together, notably in Handelâs Messiah, and shared up the arias in LâInconstanza delusa.

All St. Germainâs Italian arias are printed in a musical album entitled by him in French Musique Raisonnée selon le bon sens, aux Dames Angloises qui aiment le vrai gout en cet art par SSSS de Saint-Germain. This means âMusic reasoned according to good sense, to the English ladies who like true taste in that art.â There are three copies known of, one in the British Museum, one in Richmond, and one in the Národní Museum, Prague. The Peopleâs Museum, of Prague, was once the home of St. Germainâs musical friend, Prince Lobkowitz. The long title, written in each case by hand, varies slightly. The mysterious Ss are five in the Prague copy, four in the one in London. The English ladies will have been the Duchess of Leeds, to whom the Richmond copy is inscribed, Lady Townshend, and Lady Brown, copies inscribed to whom must be somewhere. Though we do not know the title size of the edition, there must of course have been more copies than this.

There are enough arias for several operas. Why did he publish them in this way? Could he have started them merely as exercises? It is the last of them (which is also the last of the Italian arias on this CD), on which he has bestowed the most care, in the form of expression marks at almost every bar, con colera (angrily), dolorosamente (sorrowfully), pregando (beseechingly.) It is in F Minor:

Non ha ragione ingrate
Un core abbandonato
Da chi guirò gli fe
Ingrato da chi guirò gli fe?
Anime innamorate
Se lo provaste mai
Dite le voi per me.

Perfido tu lo sai
Si tu lo sai
Si in premio un tradimento
Anime innamorate
Se questo mio non è?

Which I translate:

Is he not wrong, ungrateful
To a heart forsaken,
That swore to him faith,
Ungrateful to one who swore him faith?
Loving souls,
If you have experienced it,
Say it for me.

Perfidious, you know,
Yes, you know,
Whether, as my reward,
I deserved betrayal by you?
And what shall torment be,
Loving souls,
If this of mine is not?

The words, like the music, of all the Italian arias, appear to be St. Germainâs own.

So are the words of the English song:

Jove when he say my Fannyâs face
With wondrous passion movâd
Forgot the care of human race,
And felt at last he lovâd
Then to the God of soft desire,
He thus his suit address.
I fanny Love, with mutual fire
O touch her tender breasts.

Your sighs are hopeless, Cupid cries,
I lovâd the maid before.
What! Ravel me? Great Jove replies,
Whom gods and men adore!
He graspâd the bold, he shook the springs
Of his imperial throne;
While Cupid wavâd his rosy wings,
And in a breath was gone.

Oâer earth and sea the godhead flew,
But still no shelter founds,
For as he fled his danger grew,
And lightening flashed around:
At last his trembling fear impels
His flight to Fannyâs eyes,
Where happy, save and pleasâd he dwells,
Nor minds his native skies.

There may be an autobiographical element discerned here. The father of the gods would not have been wondering over earth and seas seeking shelter; surely it is the poet who has wandered through many countries without finding an abiding home. In England he is a foreigner, for, in Fannyâs eyes, he forgets his native skies; possibly he forgets, also, the cares which, as an exile, he should still have for his own people. Note the play on the word âminds,â which can mean remember but also take care of.

A warm, sunny piece, in D, here heard in the lovely voice of Mark Bleeke, it was originally sung in 1745 at Vauxhall by Thomas Lowe, a tenor who had recently taken the role of Macheath in The Beggarâs Opera. The little piece enjoyed an extraordinary popularity, and within the next thirty years appeared in no less than nineteen magazines and anthologies.

I have dwelt upon the songs, because it is easier to deal in words with something that has a verbal expression, but St. Germainâs instrument was the violin, and his serious music consisted in the trio sonatas and violin solos. Written in the mid-century, just when styles were changing, the trio sonatas still adhere to the late baroque, but the violin solos tend already towards the rococo, with it flourishes, and the emerging dominance of the first violin. The style can be called early gallant.

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The Artists

St. Lukeâs Chamber Ensemble

Acclaimed worldwide for its mastery of a diverse repertoire spanning the Baroque to the contemporary, the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble is New York's preeminent chamber group. The Ensemble was founded by Michael Feldman in 1974 to display the artistry and virtuosity of a group of outstanding young musicians. The Ensemble takes its name from the historic Greenwich Village Church of St. Luke-in-the-Field, where its first concerts were held, and where it performed for seven consecutive seasons. In 1981 when a fire destroyed the church, St. Lukeâs Chamber Ensemble began performing at other halls around New York, steadily attracting wider audiences, and today is among New York's most prominent classical chamber ensembles. The Ensemble performs a wide range of chamber works, music for chamber orchestra, and chamber operas from the fifteenth through the twentieth centuries, as well as premiere performances of contemporary works that reflected the versatility that has become St. Luke's trademark. The Ensemble currently consists of 21 virtuoso artists who together form the artistic nucleus of the larger Orchestra of St. Lukeâs.

Louise Schulman, director

Louise Schulman has been a member and principal violist of the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble since its inception in 1974. She served as the Ensemble's associate music director for twenty seasons. She also performs on a variety of historical stringed instruments. Her solo recordings include Telemann and Vivaldi Concerti for both viola and viola d'amore. Ms. Schulman can also be heard on numerous recordings for Music Masters. Performances and recordings with other ensembles include the Waverly Consort, Philomel, Folger Consort, Strathmere Ensemble, Ensemble Breve, Armstrong Chamber Concerts, Long Island Baroque Ensemble, Group for Contemporary Music, and appearances as principal violist with the Berkshire Opera and Little Orchestra Society. Ms. Schulman has recorded Interviews for viola and piano by Eleanor Cory, released on CRI. Since 1975, Ms. Schulman has been on the performing and coaching staff of the Composers Conference and Chamber Music Center. She plays on a viola made by Zanetto da Montichiaro, ca. 1530. Louise Schulman directs the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble on period instruments for this premiere recording of St. Germain's music.


Julianne Baird, soprano

Julianne Baird has been hailed as "one of the most extraordinary voices in the service of early music that this generation
has produced. She possesses a natural musicianship which engenders singing of supreme expressive beauty." She maintains a busy concert schedule of solo recitals and performances of baroque opera and oratorio.

Ms. Baird has also appeared as soloist with many major symphony orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra under Christoph von Dohnanyi, the Brooklyn Philharmonic under Lukas Foss, the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta and, in the 2000-2001 season, the Philadelphia Orchestra. James R. Oestreich, in his comprehensive survey of New York's seasonal performances of Handel's Messiah for the N.Y. Times, recently concluded with special praise for Julianne Baird's interpretative skills: "in that respect, Ms. Baird remains the model".

With over 100 recordings to her credit on Decca, Deutsche Gramophone, Newport Classics and Dorian, Julianne Baird is considered one of Americaâs most recorded women. In addition to her major roles in the acclaimed series of Handel operatic and oratorio premieres, she has a new solo album titled "Glorious Handel." The New York Philharmonic's recent commemorative box set to itâs century of recordings includes her recording of Reichâs "Tehillim". Other new recordings include "Dance on a Moonbeam", featuring Julianne Baird, Meryl Streep, and Frederica von Stade and âPassionate Pavanes.â Deidamia--the last opera of George Frederic--with Julianne Baird in which she sings the title role.

Julianne Baird is an active teacher and scholar, with degrees from the Eastman School and a Diploma from the Salzburg Mozarteum in performance. She also earned a PhD in music history from Stanford University. Her publications include "Introduction to the Art of Singing", from Cambridge University Press. Recognized internationally as one of the few who can both demonstrate the full range of the singer's art and explain it - Dr. Baird is regularly asked to provide master classes at universities and music schools throughout North America. She also reaches large audiences through regional and national broadcasts including a recent featured interview on Terry Gross' internationally syndicated "Fresh Air". She is a distinguished professor of music at Rutgers University at Camden, NJ.


Mark Bleeke, tenor

American tenor Mark Bleeke comes from a family where music formed a part of everyday life. He sings a diverse repertoire from Early Music to Baroque, Classical, Pop and Contemporary, and enjoys improvising on the piano, composing and arranging. In opera, Mark Bleeke is especially renowned for his interpretation of Mozart roles such as Tamino in The Magic Flute, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni and Ferrando in Cosi Fan Tutte. In Oratorio, he is a sought-after Evangelist in the Bach Passions and sings with many of the great symphony orchestras such as The New York Philharmonic and the Pittsburgh Symphony alongside world-renowned conductors including Zubin Mehta, Charles Dutoit, Andrew Parrott and Michel Corboz. In contemporary music he has worked closely with many composers including John Harbison, Gian Carlo Menotti, John Corigliano, Paul Winter and Dave Brubeck. Mark Bleeke is a frequent guest artist in festivals throughout the USA and abroad.