Kitty Whately and Simon Lepper gave a completely sensational recital at last year’s Lieder Festival. They return now with another colourful and imaginative programme, that they first performed at Wigmore Hall. Seven composers from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Juliana Hall set the words of women poets, including Ursula Vaughan Williams, Virginia Woolf, and Margaret Atwood.
We hear two cycles by Jonathan Dove, including his Nights not spent alone setting Edna St Vincent Millay, that Kitty and Simon recorded for the Champs Hill label. The Financial Times described these songs as ‘brilliantly conceived’ and wrote: ‘As well as being eminently singable, Dove’s songs have a quick-witted, modern style, with echoes of Britten, Bernstein and Sondheim, that can turn on a sixpence and catch the emotions unawares. Kitty Whately and her accompanist, Simon Lepper, catch their elation, their humour, their heartache’.
Emerging artist: Tristan Hambleton
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 bass-baritone Tristan Hambleton, who performs several of Schubert’s settings of women poets, including the wonderful ‘Romanze’ from Rosamunde by Helmina von Chézy. Tristan gave an outstanding performance of Schubert’s Schwanengesang in our Song at Wolfson/Fairlight series earlier this year and we are delighted to welcome him back.
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.