Night | by Michelangelo Buonarroti | 1520–34 | part of the Tomb of Giuliano | Medici Chapel, Florence
I have put together a program bringing together two of the last three works of Shostakovich: the Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti for Bass and Piano, Op. 145 (1974); and the Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 147 (1975). I will be performing it, with brilliant colleagues Simon Barrad, Hsin-Yun Huang, and Timothy Ridout, in the USA and the UK during 2021-22. As the season progresses, I will be sharing snippets of thought and reflection about these masterpieces.
Today a few words about the extraordinary ninth song of Op. 145, entitled Night (A Dialogue). The text Shostakovich sets here is a Russian translation, by the gifted poet Avram Efros, consisting of the famous quatrain by (the elder) Giovanni Strozzi, paying homage to Michelangelo’s wondrous statue depicting Night, and Michelangelo’s noble, proud reply published in his own later Rime. Shostakovich’s eerie setting leaves no doubt that the oppressive environment around him in the 1970s, as around Michelangelo in the 1520s, gives no cause for Art or the Artist to wake. And yet what a gift for us that both these artists continued to create rather than slumber.
Here below is the song in a live performance by Simon Barrad and myself. And further down you will find the Russian text, then Simon’s translation into English, and finally, for good measure, the original Italian of Strozzi and Michelangelo.
9. Ночь (Диалог)
— Вот эта Ночь, что так спокойно спит
Перед тобою,– ангела созданье.
Она из камня, но в ней есть дыханье:
Лишь разбуди,– она заговорит.
—Мне сладко спать, а пуще камнем быть,
Когда кругом позор и преступленье:
Не чувствовать, не видеть – облегченье,
Умолкни ж, друг, к чему меня будить?
9. Night (Dialogue)
—Here is this Night, that so calmly sleeps
Before you, the creation of an angel.
She is of stone, but there is breath in her:
Only awaken her—she will begin to speak.
—It’s sweet to sleep, but better still to be a stone,
When all around is shame and crime:
Not feeling, not seeing is a relief,
Fall silent then, friend, why awaken me?
9. {Strozzi & Rime/247}
—La Notte che tu vedi in sì dolci atti
dormir, fu da un Angelo scolpita
in questo sasso e, perché dorme, ha vita:
destala, se nol credi, e parleratti.
—Caro m'è 'l sonno, e più l'esser di sasso,
mentre che 'l danno e la vergogna dura;
non veder, non sentir m'è gran ventura;
però non mi destar, deh, parla basso.