"In a Persian Garden"

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 9, 13 September 1929, Page 6

"In a Persian Garden"

At 1YA on Tuesday, September 17. ° WHEN Liza Lehmann retired from the concert stage in 1894, on the oceasion of her marriage, she turned her attention to composition, and in 1896 her firest work, the song cycle, "In a Persian Garden," was produced at a private concert at the house of Mrs. A. L. Goertz, the singers being Mesdames Albani and Hilda Wilson, Ben Davies and David Bispham. A ~ little later it was publicly performed at the old St. James’ Hall, and achieved an immediate success. This success was quickly repeated in America, and it set the fashion for the many song eycles that followed. . The work is a setting of some thirty quatrains from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, as translated by Fitzgerald. It ig not, like some of its successors, just a collection of songs, but a complete whole, the various solos, duets and quartets being bound together by melodious recitatives and instrumental interludes. Much skill has been shown in the selection of the various stanzas, so that one thought is extended to make a complete section. Thus, for instance, the contralto recitative and solo begins with the 39th stanza, "Ah, not a drop that from our cups we throw", and continue with the 19th and 20th ("I sometimes think’); and the soprano solo, "But if the Soul" includes stanzas 44, 65 and 66. There is a slight Hastern feeling i the music, but its effectiveness is mainly dependent upon the delightful manner in which the somewhat pessimistic philosophy of Omar and the polished eharm of Fitzgerald’s verse are reflected. It is, indeed, not too much to say: that Liza Lehmann’s music brought the beauty of Fitzgerald’s poetry to the notice of many thousands who would otherwise have passed it by. The presentation at 1YA will be in the hands of the Olympian Quartet.