I Will Wait for You is the English version of “Je ne pourrai jamais vivre sans toi”,”I could never live without you”. It was composed by Michel Legrand with lyrics by Jacques Demy. The English lyrics were written by Norman Gimbel. In July 1966, Connie Francis recorded it in English.
Jeg elsker dig, I love you, was composed in 1864 by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, with a text by Hans Christian Andersen. Grieg wrote the piece in Danish while living in Denmark as an expression of his love for his cousin and future wife, Nina Hagerup. It was beautifully sung by the Swedish tenor Nicolai Gedda with pianist Jan Eyron. Gedda was born in 1925, sang in seven languages, and is celebrated as the most widely recorded tenor in classical music history: He made more than 200 recordings!
Love, I’ve Found You was composed by Danny Small. We’ll hear Gloria Lynne’s recording from 1960. Gloria Lynne recorded a beautiful version of it. She was born in Harlem in 1929. She received the International Women of Jazz Award, the Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, the National Treasure Award, and the Living Legend Award from the State of Pennsylvania.
In the Mysterious Silence of the Night is only one of more than 100 songs written by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Based on a poem by Afanasy Fet, Rachmaninoff was only 16 when he composed it! It was sung by an artist with one of the most beautiful baritone voices I have ever heard: Dimitri Kharitonov with pianist Leif Ove Andsnes.
Del cabello más sutil Of the Softest Hair is a famous Spanish song composed by Fernando Obradors in 1921. A favorite rendition was recorded by the magnificent Canadian mezzo-soprano Arlene Auger.
Frédéric Chopin’s Nocturne in E-flat is one of the most famous and widely recognized solo piano pieces in classical music. It was composed when Chopin was only 19. Artur Rubinstein was a great admirer of Rachmaninoff. Of Rachmaninoff’s piano playing, Rubinstein stated: “I was always under the spell of his glorious and inevitable tone. There was always the irresistible sensuous charm.” In Rubinstein’s recording of Chopin’s Nocturne in E-flat one can hear the influence.
Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing was composed by Sammy Fain with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster and first appeared in the movie by the same title in 1956. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song that year.
Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony was composed in 1901. Mahler sent the musical manuscript as a wordless “love letter in notes” to declare his love to Alma Schindler during their courtship in 1902. Composed for strings and harp, Mahler sent the music to Alma without a verbal explanation; she recognized it as a musical proposal and told him to come to her.
Two musicians timed Mahler’s own conducting of this music at approximately seven minutes. Unfortunately, almost every conductor has decided to play it twice too slow, which results in it sounding like funeral music instead of the love music that he wrote, thereby destroying it. I’m only aware of three other conductors besides myself who play it at the same speed that Mahler conducted it: his friend, the Dutch conductor Willem Mengelberg, Mahler’s protégé Bruno Walter; and Rudolph Schwartz.
Rudolph Schwartz was imprisoned in three Nazi camps, including Auschwitz, where his shoulders were broken when he was tortured. He survived and in 1958 he conducted it with the London Symphony, creating the first stereo recording of Mahler’s 5th.
As I mentioned, Mahler gave the manuscript of the music to the future Alma Mahler as a declaration of his love and two months later they were married! The actual manuscript itself is beautiful!
You’ll Never Walk Alone was written by Rodgers and Hammerstein for their 1945 Broadway musical Carousel. It was the emotional trademark anthem that Jerry Lewis sang to close his annual telethon dedicated to raising money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
I love the music of Jean-Philippe Rameau including his opera The Amorous Indies composed in 1735 especially his setting of the words Tender love, may your chain bind us. One of the most joyful and intimate performances I’ve ever heard was performed at the Philharmonie in Paris by a group called Les Arts Florissants, (The Flourishing Arts) conducted by its founder, William Christie.
Babyface was written by Harry Akst, with lyrics by Benny Davis in 1926. Brian Hyland was born in Queens, NY, in 1943. At age 16, he skyrocketed to stardom with his song, “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini,” which quickly sold 1 million copies and captured the #1 spot across the USA. He recorded Babyface in 1960.
In 1840 Robert Schumann composed In the Wondrous Month of May, the first in a collection of 16 songs, entitled A Poet’s Love, a setting to music of the poetry of Heinrich Heine. It was beautifully recorded by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau with Gerald Moore at the piano.
La Vie en Rose, or Seeing life through rose-colored glasses, was the signature song of Édith Piaf. She wrote it in 1945 with Louis Guglielmi. Regarded as France’s national chanteuse, she was known as The Little Sparrow. Her raw, deeply emotional voice captured the joys and intense heartbreaks of life, mirroring her own tumultuous personal journey. Born in Paris in 1915, she was raised in poverty and spent her youth singing on street corners alongside her acrobat father.
Piaf faced lifelong tragedy, including the loss of her only child to meningitis at age two, and the sudden death of her greatest love, boxer Marcel Cerdan, in a plane crash in 1949. She survived multiple major car accidents, which led to a lifelong dependence on morphine and alcohol to manage chronic pain. Piaf died from liver cancer at 47. Her death provoked national mourning, and she remains a legendary touchstone of French culture.
Puccini composed his opera Tosca in 1900. In the final act the tenor sings O dolci mani, Oh sweet hands, as he lovingly kisses his lover’s hands after she reveals she killed his torturer to save him.
The words in English are:
Oh, sweet hands, pure and gentle,
Oh, hands meant for the fair works of piety,
Caressing children, gathering roses,
For prayers when others meet misfortune…
Then it was in you, made strong by love,
That justice placed her sacred weapons?
You dealt out death, victorious hands,
Oh, sweet hands, pure and gentle!
Maria Callas and Giuseppe DiStefano recorded 10 complete operas together, and their recording of Tosca in 1953 with the La Scala Orchestra conducted by Victor DeSabata is widely considered to be one of the greatest opera recordings ever made. DiStefano was Pavarotti’s favorite tenor and in hearing this recording, one can understand why!
Leonard Cohen’s 1993 song Dance Me to the End of Love was a response to the Holocaust, specifically to the stories of Jews being forced to play classical music in the camps as they marched to their deaths. Its “official video” has received more than 197 million views!
The slow movement of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Symphony was composed in 1906 and is the basis for several popular songs: “Never Gonna Fall in Love Again” by Eric Carmen, ”If I Should Love Again” by Barry Manilow, and “You Can’t Go Home Again” by Don Sebesky.
Eugene Ormandy, long-time conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra had conducted Rachmaninoff as soloist on numerous occasions and his recording of Rachmaninoff 2nd Symphony is legendary.
Because You’re Mine was written by Nicholas Brodszky and Sammy Cahn for the 1952 musical movie of the same name. It was Mario Lanza’s third million-selling single. In the movie version he sang it with Doretta Morrow.
Stranger in Paradise is from the 1953 musical Kismet. The melody was composed by Alexander Borodin in 1890 for his opera Prince Igor. Tony Bennett’s recording from early in his career is wonderful!