Carl Reinecke's Sonata for flute and piano Op. 167 "Undine" was composed in 1882, after a novel of the same name written by Friedrich de la Motte Fouque in 1811. The novel tells of Undine, a water nymph who chooses to live as a human woman in order to gain an immortal soul. When she wins the love of the knight Huldbrand, her desire is fulfilled. She travels with her new husband to the city, where she meets his former fiancée, Bertalda, which accompanies them back to the castle at Ringstetten. After a while Huldbrand is drawn back to the simpler, fully human Bertalda, and treats Undine unkindly. Her uncle Kuhleborn, ruler of the water spirits, decrees that Undine must return to the water kingdom. Eventually Huldbrand decides to marry Bertalda, thereby violating his still-binding marriage to Undine, and therefore Undine returns from the waters to give him a kiss that brings him his death. Lilacs / Сирень Ekaterina Andreyena Beketova (1855 - 1892) Ast the red of the dawn, O'er the dew-spangled lawn, Where I meet the new day like a kiss, In the sweet, fragment shade By the lilac trees made, There I wander in search of my bliss... For one joy, one alone, Fate has giv'n as my own, And it dwells in you fair lilac bow'r In its bright branches green, In its thick, perfumed screen, There my one poor lost joy breaks in flow'r. A Dream / Сон Aleksey Nikolayevich Pleshcheyev (1825-1893) My native land I once enjoyed In realms afar, Where waving pines their branhces bowed My dream is o'er And friends I had though far apart. Unknown t'would seem Had love but stirred within my heart... To wake my dream! How Beautiful it is Here! / Здесь хорошо Glafira Adol'fovna Galina (1873-1942) How nice it is here... Look - far away, The river is a blaze of fire; The meadows lie like carpets of colour The clouds are white. Here there is no one... Here it is silent... Here is only God and I, The flowers, the old pine tree, And you, my dream!