Lucy Crowe ‘brings down the house with a soprano artistry beyond compare’ (The Independent). She makes a long-anticipated return to the Festival, with the brilliant Anna Tilbrook, for this captivating programme.
They begin with a selection of Britten’s arrangements of old English folk songs, following perfectly from today's 5.30pm recital with Caitlin Hulcup. They then perform a set of Strauss songs, whose rich romanticism offers some of the most passionately heart-on-sleeve songs in the repertoire, including such favourites as ‘Morgen’, ‘Die Nacht’ and ‘Ständchen’.
The second half of Lucy and Anna’s concert is an amazing selection of French music. Théodore Gouvy was born in 1819, one year after Charles Gounod. Although the latter is much better known today, and commonly hailed as the father of French ‘mélodie’, Gouvy was also an important and esteemed character, but spent much of his life in Germany and was better known there than in France. This was despite Berlioz famously stating in 1851: ‘that a musician of the importance of M. Gouvy is still not very well known in Paris, and that so many gnats bother the public with their tenacious buzzing, is enough to confuse and inflame the naive spirits that still believe in the reason and the justice of our musical manners’.
They also include works by Saint-Saëns, Henri Duparc, Debussy, Nadia Boulanger, and Cécile Chaminade in this scintillating and unmissable recital.
Emerging artist: William Morgan
Every evening recital this year will begin with Schubert songs performed by singers who have arguably been hardest hit by the current crisis: artists who are already forging careers but not yet at a stage where they can view current circumstances as a temporary setback. Tonight, we hear the outstanding tenor William Morgan. Will gave a memorable and moving performance of Schumann’s Kerner Lieder at one of our Song at Wolfson concerts last year, and has already performed for the Royal Opera, ENO and Scottish Opera.
Q&A
After a short break at the end of the concert, there will be a Q&A with the artists. Please email any questions you have during the interval or at the end of the concert (songconnections@oxfordlieder.co.uk) or post them on social media (#OLF2020), and the artists will answer as many as time allows.
This concert will be streamed completely live from the Holywell Music Room. Shortly afterwards, it will also be available to watch again (using the same ticket and link) until 1 November 2020. Click here for further information on how tickets will work this year.