Oxford Lieder / Song at Wolfson: Edward Grint sings Finzi and Schumann

Edward Grint is one of the most exciting bass-baritones of the new generation, an alumnus of King’s College, Cambridge, and the Benjamin Britten Opera School at the Royal College of Music. He performs two songs cycles where the meeting of poet and composer is truly symbiotic: Gerald Finzi’s settings of Thomas Hardy and one of Robert Schumann’s first forays into the poetry of Heinrich Heine. Both composers would set these poets more than any others, and today’s cycles represent pinnacles of the English and German song traditions. Earth and Air and Rain contains such great songs as To Lizbie Browne and The Clock of the Years, while Schumann’s Liederkreis (‘Song Circle’) creates a powerful and cohesive musical narrative around Heine’s bittersweet poems. Today is also the feast of St Cecilia, patron saint of music: an auspicious day and a superb recital to start our season of Song at Wolfson.