Reinecke - Undine Sonata, Op. 167, II. Intermezzo: Allegro vivace

Matthew Ross, Flute
Kseniia Polstiankina, Piano
Carl Reinecke (1824-1910)
Sonata "Undine" for Flute and Piano, Op. 167
II. Intermezzo: Allegro vivace
October 7, 2014
Robert J. Werner Recital Hall
The “Undine” Sonata, Op. 167 by Carl Reinecke depicts the German fairy tale novella by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué. Near a forest in Austria lives an old fisherman, his wife, and their foster daughter, Undine. The nearby wood is said to be inhabited by spirits who are enemies of the mortal human beings living outside the forest. One day, the young knight Sir Huldbrand of Ringstetten is traveling through the forest when a storm breaks, forcing him to take refuge in the fisherman’s cottage. Sir Huldbrand is amazed by the beauty of young Undine, who asks him to tell the story of his forest adventures. The fisherman, however, forbids the telling as it is unwise to talk of spirits at night. Undine - rebellious mischievous, and untamed - disappears into the night when her foster father reproves her. The fisherman and the knight call for her to return, but their voices are lost in the storm. Eventually she is found by Sir Huldbrand, safe in the leafy bower where she has been hiding. When he returns with her, the storm begins raging so furiously that the cottage and its four inhabitants become cut off by encircling floods. Undine and Sir Huldbrand soon fall in love and wed. Following her wedding night, Undine confesses to her husband that she is a water spirit, and she thanks him for the gift he unknowingly gave her through their marriage. He gave a soul to this otherwise soul-less nymph. She volunteers to to free him of the marriage if he does so choose, but Sir Huldbrand instead swears undying love and commitment to Undine. Not too much time passes when Undine’s man-distrusting uncle Kuhleborn visits with a warning. He tells Undine that if her husband ever harms her in any way, the water spirits will not let her continue her life with him, and if his love strays, he must die. After moving to the palace at Ringstetten, Undine, due to her trust in people and the goodness of her heart, allows Sir Huldbrand’s former fiancée Berthalda as a permanent house guest. Sir Huldbrand becomes increasingly uncomfortable with his wife’s unworldly goodness and her communication with water spirits, and he eventually is drawn back to his first love. Urged by Berthalda, Huldbrand loses his temper with Undine and she is forced to return to life in the sea. Sir Huldbrand turns to Berthalda for comfort and eventually agrees to marry her. Despite her anguished appeals, Undine my herself be the instrument of Sir Huldbrand’s punishment. At the wedding of Sir Huldbrand and Berthalda, Undine sorrowfully appears and gives her former husband a kiss that kills him. At the knight’s funeral, Undine secretly joins the mourners. She then vanishes and in her place appears a spring of water from which two small streams encircle the new grave.