Roderick Williams - Sea Pictures???

"I'm not dressed as a mermaid," quipped Roderick Williams. He was singing Elgar's Sea Pictures. Yes! Sea Pictures, mezzo soprano territory, usually heard with full orchestra, but here in the less common piano song version, at the Holywell Music Room, part of the 10th Oxford Lieder Festival. The grand Elgar gestures are still there in the piano part (especially in Sabbath Morning at Sea) but the cycle as piano song is something altogether more immediate and direct. Williams make such a powerful case for Sea Pictures that he raises Elgar's profile as song composer.  This Sea Pictures is so much more distinctive than most of Elgar's other rather more stylized piano songs. At last we might hear programmes of English song with Elgar given due prominence.

Despite its preoccupation with folklore, English song is a 20th century genre, far removed from bucolic pastures. Yet it's not  pretension. Roderick Williams has transformed English song performance practice because he approaches it as music. He's direct, personal and immediate, completely without affectation. He's astounding good technically, lovely burnished timbre, impeccable phrasing. The transpositoin is perfect,  and even when the tessitura leaps, Williams is secure. He communicates as if he's in conversation, telling an interesting story he cares about. "I, the Mother mild" sings Williams, "Hush thee, O my child". We might be thinking Janet Baker, but Williams expresses the spirit of the poem, for Ellfinland exists beyond gender or time. The imagery in these songs is nautical and in some songs the mood is ebullient. But meaning is deeper. "The music seeks and finds me still, and tells me where the corals lie".

Oxford Lieder does rare repertoire well. Until Roderick Williams sang Ralph Vaughan Williams (no relation) Willow-wood, the cycle hadn't been heard since 1903, and was known only to specialists. In 2005, he recorded the version with large orchestra and female choir. The text (Dante Gabriel Rossetti) suggests furtive lovemaking in the woods. In this performance, Williams brought out the unhealthy, even sinister aspects clearly. The orchestral version may be more ambitious, but the piano version is far more expressive.

Charlotte Bray is composer in residence, with three of her works performed at this year's Oxford Lieder Festival.  Her Songs and Sonnets is a key new work, heard here for the first time. The poet is Fernando Pessoa, who turned multiple personality into art form. He's become cultish in recent years because his work is surreal, utterly unique. His perspectives open new dimensions: No wonder he fascinates so many composers. Read more about him here on this site.   In these poems, Pessoa is parodying Os Lusiadas, the Lusiades, the Homeric epic poem by Luis de Camões (1524-80) which is so iconic that it symbolizes Portuguese culture and identity.  Bray's response is interesting. She counteracts Pessoa's florid text with spare, open textures. Often the voice is unaccompanied, and the words declaimed rather than sung. Camões and Pessoa are formidable poets to attempt, so if Bray doesn't focus on structure, her detailed word painting is a reasonable response.

Williams and his pianist, Andrew West, began their programme interspersing songs by Fauré and Duparc with songs by John Ireland. Numerous correlations with the rest of the programme. Exotic images of travel,  songs better known for female voice, even the idea of neurosis if you connect Duparc with Pessoa.

Roderick Williams is perhaps the most original British baritone today, and I do include bigger names, because his voice is so distinctive, and he communicates so powerfully. He 's also adventurous with repertoire. "Next time", he said "I might sing Schumann Frauenliebe und Leben". It has been done before (Matthias Goerne) and brings out new perspectives in the familar cycle. Maybe Oxford Lieder should take him up on his dare.

Read about Roderick Williams in ENO's Rameau Castor and Pollux HERE. It's nice to see Roddy with his clothes on! But he must be covered in bumps and bruises after that production. And read about his Butterworth Complete Songs HERE - amazing !!!!

Aaaah, Miah !!! Swedish Songs, Oxford Lieder

I have a friend who has worshipped Miah Persson since she was a student. So when she married and moved to England, he was bereft and I was thrilled. How fortunate we are to be able to hear Miah, especially at Glyndebourne. .Her Mozart is outstanding, but then, so too is her Britten, her Strauss, her Sibelius, her Mahler, her baroque..... She has exquisite lyrical tone, and a range that moves easily and flexibly. But what makes her special is her wit and charm. When Miah sings, you always sense musical intelligence. Megastar as she is now, she hasn't forgotten her roots, so it was wonderful to hear her at The Oxford Lieder Festival in a programme of Swedish songs. Indeed, she made her mark in Britain with her Hyperion CD "Soul and Landscape" in 2003.

"Soul and Landscape" refers to the Gösta Nystroem group of songs Själ och landskap, which she sang again in Oxford, this time with Matti Hirvornen, a superlative interpreter. Landscape is briefly sketched - snowfall, sea, rocks, wind, but the real landscape Nystroem and his poet Ebba Lindqvist are dealing with is internal.  Terrain is a metaphor for longing: open horizons of the soul. Matti Hirvornen shapes the delicate traceries, bringing out the elusive grace in these songs. He's much, much more idiomatic than Roger Vignoles was (sorry, but it's true). Persson's voice has blossomed beautifully, and she sings with much greater colour and depth. No comparison bertween the 2003 recording (where piano is too heavily miked) and this exquisite live performance.

Even more magical is På reveln (On the rocks) from 1948. Almost unbelievably diaphanous textures (Hirvonen is brilliant). The vocal part is luminous too. Livets drömlika skönhet....vin sin evighets rand. (life's dreamlike beauty... on the edge of eternity). The song is as gossamer as the wings of the white butterflies in the text, which flutter in the sunshine. Again, it's a mood poem, for the poet Anders Osterling is standing on rocks between sea and land. Soon the tide will draw in, and the night, and the moment will be gone forever.

Miah Persson doesn't often sing in places as small as the Holywell Music Room (120-140 at a pinch). She made no compromises given the size of the room, and seemed to relish the chance to sing as intimately as if she were singing in her own home. A set of Ture Rangström songs, to poems by Johan Ludwig Runeberg and Bo Bergman, (who lived until 1966). Echoes of Edvard Grieg (hear En Svane in Sommarnatten), but otherwise these songs occupy a strange, but comtemporary world even when the texts coyly refer to maidens and trysts. Pan is glorious. Livets stora hunger stiger stark och god, och mitt sommarblod sjunger. (Life's deep hunger rises strong and my summer blood sings.) Anna Larsson sang this same song the previous evening: a unique chance to hear mezzo and soprano versions in close proximity.

Grieg's German songs op 48, and Jean Sibelius's Swedish songs to conclude. Phenomenal phrasing, lovely warm timbre. Våren flyktar hastigt (Spring flys away swiftly) and War det en Dröm? Which summarizes the spirit of these songs. Scandinavian summers don't last long, and hard winters will return. But for a moment, live to the full and enjoy. Which summarizes so much of the life-affirming, open-hearted  nature of this music, despite its Sensucht.

photo : Mina artistbilder

Håkan Hagegård Papageno in Swedish

Håkan Hagegård sings Papageno in Swedish. How young and sweet he looks, but it's 1975 and he's only 30. This is from Ingmar Bergman's Magic Flute, an adaptation of Mozart made for Swedish TV. Maybe that's why it's "snowing" below.  It was screened in full on Saturday in Oxford as part of the Oxford Lieder Festival 2011. Hagegård was there to talk about the film, and also gave a keynote Masterclass. One of the important things about Oxford Lieder is the way experienced singers like Hagegård (and Wolfgang Holzmair, Sir Thomas Allen, Dame Felicity Lott, Dame Felicity Palmer and others) share their skills with young performers. There's nothing like learning from someone with real platform background. Masterclass participants are uniquely privileged. Plus, they get to listen in on all concerts, talks and events, and give their own recital on Wednesday 26th October.

I wish I'd been to the film and to the short course on singing in Swedish. Although German speakers can more or less make out what's being said, specific sounds are very different indeed. No hard gutterul "g"'s but the fluid, softer Swedish "g" that sounds like the English "y". Hence "Runebery" not "RuneberG". Probably many more useful tips. There was a Smörgåsbord too, hosted by the Swedish Embassy.

What a thrill it was for me was to be sitting near Hagegård during the 10pm concert on Saturday in New College ante chapel. Susana Andersson sang and Sholto Kynoch played a programme of Alfvén, Petersen-Berger and Stenhammer with 3 songs from Liszt to mark his 200th birthday. Also, another premiere of a new work, this time Albert Schnelzer's Requiem, which starts with a dramatic fugue on the piano. Piano-song mini-Requiems are very different from gargantuan, elaborate Requiems. Very good singing and playing - and this was Sholto's fifth recital. Such an enjoyable concert. More on Oxford Lieder HERE (Anna Larsson) and HERE and more to come.

Anna Larsson Swedish Songs Oxford

It's ironic that Jean Sibelius is the best known composer of Swedish song. But Sweden ruled Finland and much of Scandinavia for many years, and Sibelius grew up speaking Swedish, not Finnish. That should indicate the richness of Swedish culture. This weekend of Swedish Song at the Oxford Lieder Festival 2011 should help  raise awareness of the glories of Swedish Song.

Daniel Grimley perceptively analysed the songs in the recital which followed. This is the kind of depth we need more of. Grimley knows his subject well (he wrote the book on Grieg, landscape and identity) and has perceptive things to say. Too often these days talks and notes are "filler" produced by people who have no idea what they're talking about. It's anti-learning. (I walked out of something at the South Bank recently, as did several others).

Anna Larsson and Matti Hirvonen chose an eclectic programme which started with Sånger vid havet (Songs by the Sea), by Gösta Nystroem (1890-1966). Sweden was neutral in 1944, but as Dr Grimley said, Swedish people weren't immune to the chaos around them. The "Song of the Sea" describes the ocean, sometimes windswept and turbulent, sometimes seemingly still in the moonlight, a thing of beauty which can turn menacing. Delicate diminuendos, sparkling figures that evoke images like light on water, or ocean spray. "Who are you who walk here, transient and fragile, who are you who trample the summer meadow?"  (Ute i skåre, Among the Rocks, Ebba Lindqvist). The landscape seems perfect, but behind it is unfocussed dread. Sonorous depths, especially in the piano part, evoking the power of nature, perhaps. In Havets visa (the sea's song) the poet Hjalmar Gullberg (1898-1961) briefly mentions the "voice which parts waters and makes light", but is even this haven completely safe? The last song, also Gullberg, ends "I await the moon, the friend in all misery, with him I can speak of the dead".

Anna Larsson was a wonderful Princess in the recent Puccini Suor Angelica (review HERE) and we're lucky she sings regularly in this country (twice at the 2011 Proms). Nystroem may be close to her heart, as she sang with great feeling. The cycle is a pinnacle of the Swedish mezzo repertoire. It's been recorded several times and there's also an orchestral version, though the piano version is more direct and intimate. The BIS recording (Birgit Finnilä) is probably best known, but there's also one by Nina Stemme from 2004 (she sounds very young). Larsson's mature enough that she can express the existential angst central to this wonderful cycle, with great depth. Because she's secure at the top and bottom, she sails the range smoothly. That upwards/downwards flow is itself part of the music for it reflects the movement of the seas.

Always pay attention to Oxford Lieder because here is where things happen.  Many new works, carefully chosen. Carin Bartosch Edström's Four Nocturnal Songs received its world premiere, and if the reception was anything to go by, it ought to be heard many times more. It's very distinctive. Firm ostinato on the right hand, rolling, circular figures on the left, creating brooding, internal tension. Matti Hirvonen is a leading exponent of Swedish piano music and a great song partner, who's worked with most Scandinavian singers from Elisabeth Söderström onwards. In this performance, you could hear why. The piano part in this cycle is dominant, and Hirvonen sculpts it firmly, for it's the foundation of the work, from which the voice emerges, as if in incantation.
 

Hearing Edström's Four Nocturnal Songs for the first time, one senses the originality of conception, even without a detailed reading of the words. The rumbling piano part suggests deep, primordial forces, over which the voices rise, as if from the still of the night. Indeed, the power of this cycle stems from its understated resolve. No need for histrionics in the voice part, for it's so well integrated with the steady rhythms in the piano, which rise and fall like breathing, with some quite magical quirky flurries.

The poems are by Edith Södergran (1892-1923) a Swedish speaking Finn, like Sibelius, who lived in Russia, and the Karelia, which was later ethnic cleansed. It's significant. Södergran grew up in a time of war, revolution and chaos, In one poem, a star crashes into the poet's garden. "Don't go out in the grass with bare feet" she warns, "my yard is full of shards" (It sounds better in Swedish). Then "Don't get too close to your dreams, they are madness". The third song, Nattlig Madonna is, as Dr Grimley said, an anti- lulllaby.  While her child sleeps in the night, a mother hears an angel sing. O vad världen växte ut i alla vidder närden lille sov! I think it means that while the child sleeps, the world outside is changing. At the very end, Larsson's voice ascends steadily up the scale. Morgonen stiger röd ur oceanen (Morning rises red from the ocean). It's beautiful, yet unsettling. Gentle and non violent as it is, Carin Bartosch Edström's Four Nocturnal Songs is very moving and assured. Defintely worth hearing again. Edström may not be known In Britain, but she's very experienced - check her out on Google.

Larsson and Hilvornen followed with four relatively familiar songs by Ture Rangström, including Vingar i natten (Wings in the Night), made famous by Anne Sofie von Otter, and songs by Strauss and Mahler, of whom she's one of the better intrepreters. But the Nytsroem and  Edström cycles were by far the highlight of the evening. Larsson and Hirvonen are performing the same programme tonight in Amsterdam (except the Edstrom songs)

Lots moreon Oxford Lieder on this site,pleasesearch.You might also like a piece on Onerva, the Finnish poet and  a description of the seminal film Korkalen

Schubert Part Songs, Oxford Lieder 2011

What might Schubertiades have been like? At the Oxford Lieder Festival, we probably come close. The atmosphere is intimate, many in the audience are old friends. Often, Schubert's audiences were the performers. In those days before recording or radio, people made their own music, at home or in genial company.  Part of being socially "accomplished" then meant learning the piano or guitar, and singing.

This year's Oxford Lieder Festival focuses on all the songs Schubert wrote in the last years of his life, so the programme on Saturday night was eclectic. In the first part: two Schlegel settings (Abendlied für die Entfernte D856, and Abendröte D690, and two Schulz settings, Im Walde D834 and Um  Mitternacht D852. :and a setting of Schubert's rakish friend Franz von Schober Schiffers Scheidlied D910, who is in the Moritz von Schwind drawing above (tho' I can't remember offhand which one he is). Singers Raphaela Papadakis, Victoria Simmonds, Nicky Spence and Mark Stone who sang an all-powerful Die Allmacht D852. Schubertiades tapered off as Schubert's friends married and/or went off to other pursuits, but von Schwind is recalling Schubert himself at the piano, sometimes joining in with the singing in his light tenor. Sholto Kynoch didn't sing, but his playing was particularly eloquent and graceful. That's why I kept thinking "Schubertiade", where the man at the piano is the one we should never overlook. For a change I could luxuriate and enjoy the piano part. All five joined together for Gebet D815, voices interweaving and alternating. It's not a very sophisticated song but when five performers are in harmony like this, it's a good experience.

What a pity that I was so tired I couldn't make the second half, because the offerings were even more unusual. Nun wer die Sehnsucht  kennt D877/1 in the version for two voices, two settings of Wilhelm von Schütz, better known as a dramatist, Lied der Delphine D857/1 and Lied des Florio D857/2, both of them songs of veiled flirtation, perfect for home performance where players could say in song what they dared not express directly. Der Hochzeitsbraten D930 is much more buffo, and often gets included in part song programmes because it's a hilarious skit, a mini-mini opera that lasts a few minutes but has major impact. Therese and Theobald aree getting married, so they go poaching to get supplies for their wedding feast. Kaspar, the gamekeeper (good part for a baritone who can act, as Stone does) catches them red handed. Theobald tries to bribe Kaspar, but Therese flirts with him, which is rather more effective. You can guess why this song, sung with gusto, is often a show stopper. Here, though, the concert ended with Der Tanz D826. This was an inspired choice, given that Oxford Lieder is focussing on Schubert's last years., It's a dance, but more danse macabre than peasant hi jinks:
Es redet und träumet die Jugend so viel,
Von Tanzen, Galoppen, Gelagen,
Auf einmal erreicht sie ein trügliches Ziel,
Da hört man sie seufzen und klagen.

Bald schmerzet der Hals, und bald schmerzet die Brust,
Verschwunden ist alle die himmlische Lust,
"Nur diesmal noch kehr' mir Gesundheit zurück!"
So flehet vom Himmel der hoffende Blick!

Jüngst wähnt' auch ein Fräulein mit trübem Gefühl,
Schon hätte ihr Stündlein geschlagen.
Doch stand noch das Rädchen der Parze nicht still,
Nun schöner die Freuden ihr tagen

Drum Freunde, erhebet den frohen Gesang,
Es lebe die teure Irene noch lang!
Sie denke zwar oft an das falsche Geschick,
Doch trübe sich nimmer ihr heiterer Blick.

(for translation, see Emily Ezust's wonderful Lieder and Song Texts page, link at right - an essential  resource for anyone interested in voical music.

Oxford Lieder Festival Big Surprise!

Never underestimate Oxford Lieder, whose 10th anniversary Festival started yesterday. The Festival started with Schubert part-songs in  Radcliffe Square but the keynote gala opening concert featured Birgid Steinberger and Graham Johnson. Steinberger may not be well known in Britain but that doesn't mean she isn't well-known in Lieder circles. Anyone whom Graham Johnson and Julius Drake respects is significant. Oxford Lieder chooses well and wisely, so pay attention!  Anyone who sings Der Hirt auf dem Felsen D965 knows what they're doing. Steinberger is Kammersängerin in Vienna, and amongst other things has performed at Schwarzenberg  and won the prestigious Hugo Wolf prize in Stuttgart. So those who didn't attend this concert didn't know what they were missing.

At first, Steinberger didn't do herself justice. Something clearly was wrong, as her chest sounded tight and congested, though there were many fine moments, indicating what she was really capable of, like a hauntingly well-nuanced "Alleluja" at the end of Die junge Nonne D828. Subtle is a  better marker of good singing than brash and belting. Apparently Steinberger had a severe vocal infection but didn't cancel, knowing how important this first concert in the Oxford Lieder Festival can be. Good singers are conscientious, and know when they're not at their best, which adds to nerves and tension. That's no demerit at all. Sensitivity is by far more important in an artist (and in life in general).

Listening to Steinberger overcome her problems was in itself an education in how song partnerships work. (Masterclass participants, take note). Graham Johnson is a perfect song pianist because he is sensitive too, supporting and enhancing the singer, playing eloquently so some of the pressure is deflected. The act of singing can loosen things up, and experience brings confidence. What a transformation after the interval!

Steinberger was now in her true, vivacious element. Her Das Lied im Grünen D917 sparkled, her voice fresh and clear. There's more to this song than the joys of the countryside. Phrases repeat, but each time with a new twist. Spring symbolizes renewal and rebirth. ".....so haben Wir klüglich die grünende Zeit nicht versäumt, Und wann es gegolten, doch glücklich geträumt, Im Grünen, im Grünen."  Here it sounded truly heartfelt.

Reinvigorated, Steinberger was able to bring out the cheerful, erotic kick in three relatively little known Schubert songs, Das Echo D990c, Heimliches Lieben D922 and Lied der Anna Lyle D830. The word "Küsse!" is invested with such luscious charm that there's no mistaking that the maiden knew full well that the kiss was real, not an echo across a valley. Good programme planning again (Graham Johnson?). Der Winterabend D938 followed the three sensuous frolics, injecting a note of winter and lost love, which deepened the mood before the magnificent climax of the evening, Der Hirt auf dem Felsen D965. (Please read my analysis of Der Winterabend HERE)

Der Hirt auf dem Felsen is a tour de force, which Schubert wrote for Anna Milder-Hauptmann as a vehicle for displaying her extreme vituosity. It also capitalizes on the idea of "Alpine" music that was so fashionable at the time, with which Milder-Hauptmann was associated. Thus the swooping dips and leaps up the scale, evoking mountains and valleys, and the idea of a shepherd, perched high on a rock, playing his flute so the sound will travel long distances and reach his beloved. The echo again, forces of nature that defy convention and restraint. "Je weiter meine Stimme dringt, je heller  sie mir weider klingt" and then the gorgeous dip "da unter", which Steinberger slides down the scale, evoking the depth of the clarinet (Joy Farrell).  Indeed, the three-way flow between voice, clarinet and piano reflects the spatial images in the song, where feelings carry through on different levels across space and presumably time. It's a masterpiuece. What "chamber music for voice" might Schubert have written had he lived?  A superb ending to the first concert in this year's Oxford Lieder Festival. Those who missed it, missed a lot ! More on the Festival, which continues for 2 weeks, HERE)

The painting is Henryk Siemiradzki (1843-1902) a Polish academician much given to depictions of the Holy Land, Middle Eastern cultures and heroic myth. Perhaps Szymanowski knew this picture, for it expresses the anarchic sensuality of the Shepherd in Krol Roger.

Oxford Lieder Festival 2011 starts Friday

In just ten years, the Oxford Lieder Festival has become Britain's most important Lieder festival, with an international following. It began as a labour of love. Ten years ago, Sholto Kynoch, now Artistic Director and driving force behind Oxford Lieder, was a postgraduate student working with Malcolm Martineau. "It started by accident", he says "I just wanted to play Schubert with friends." That first year, they performed just the three Schubert cycles. Schubert remains at the heart of the Oxford Lieder Festival. There are plans for a huge, ambitious Schubertiade in 2014.

The first weekend of this tenth anniversary year is devoted to Schubert, Every song from Die schöne Müllerin D. 795 to the magnificent Der Hirt auf dem Felsenn D 965 on the opening evening, Friday 14th October, with Graham Johnson, Brigid Steinberger and Joy Farrell (clarinet).

Oxford Lieder does things in depth. There's a two day series of workshops, talks and four concerts considering "The Wagner Effect" on art song, with particular emphasis on the songs of Franz Liszt and Hugo Wolf. Very good speakers, including Amanda Glauert, whose "Hugo Wolf and the Wagnerian Inheritance" is a classic. Oxford Lieder is in the process of recording the complete Hugo Wolf song output. Volumes 1 and 2 ( the Mörike songs) are already available through Stone Records. The discs are unusual in that they feature four different singers (Sophie Daneman, Anna Grevelius, James Gilchrist, Stephan Loges and Sholto Kynoch at the piano) and were recorded live last year in the Holywell Music Room, with its perfect, intimate acoustic. This year, the concert on 18th October is being recorded and will feature Wolf's earliest work and his settings of Keller and Ibsen.

An intensive three day series on Swedish Song follows from 21st October. Oxford Lieder has a tradition of presenting Scandinavian music. This year, Miah Persson, Anna Larsson, and Håkan Vramsmo will be singing Rangström, Sjögren, Nystroem and Grieg . There'll also be premieres of two new works, by Tobias Brostöm and Carin Bartosch Edström. Håkan Hagegård will present one of two masterclasses in Swedish song and be on hand for a screening of Ingmar Bergman's film of Mozart The Magic Flute, in which he sang Papageno.

Although the Oxford Lieder Festival operates on a shoestring, it makes a point of supporting new work. This year's composer in residence is Charlotte Bray, whose work will feature in three separate concerts, culminating with a new song cycle specilly commissioned by Oxford Lieder, to be premiered on 27th October by Roderick Williams. There's a composition workshop on the same day, led by Professor Robert Saxton.

The Oxford Lieder Festival is supported by many major singers, like Wolfgang Holzmair, Florian Boesch, Sir Thomas Allen, Sarah Connolly, Dame Felicity Lott, James Gilchrist and Roderick Williams, all of whom will be giving keynote recitals.

Fundamental to the Oxford Lieder ethos, however, is the idea of nurturing new talent. Each year there's a two week residential masterclass for pairs of singers and pianists. developing practical performance skills. Participants attend the whole Festival, so it's intensive, but rewarding. They also give their own concert. There's also a Young Artists Platform which gives awards and opportunities for singers and peianists to perform year round. This concept of practcal performance means a great deal to Sholto Kynoch. He loves "the buzz between performer and audience, that allows you to put across what you want to with the music". He adds, with enthusiasm, "That two-way dynamic is something I've tried very hard to get at the Festival, and I think it's one of the festival's strongest features."

Most concerts take place in the Holywell Music Room, where Mozart and Hadyn once performed. It's perfect for Lieder because its size allows particularly close communication between performers and the audience. For many that intimacy might be intimidating, but Kynoch's personality encourages performers to give of their best. He gives over 70 concerts a year, as pianist, but he's also a charismatic organizer. The "Oxford Lieder Family" atmosphere, involving both audience and performers, is part of its unique charm. Everyone is valued, whether a big star or a non-professional. There are even workshops for amateurs and part-song recitals in the street to attract people who don't yet realize how much fun singing can be.

For more details, please see the Oxford Lieder Festival website.

Ten years - Oxford Lieder Festival 2011

Ten years of the Oxford Lieder Festival!  The Oxford Lieder Festival 2011 is the most important song festival in this country, and attracts international interest.  Sholto Kynoch and Oxford Lieder prove that those who believe passionately in what they do can achieve great things. The Oxford Lieder spirit is exciting because it's a mix of enthusiasm, deep knowledge and genuine love for the art of song performance. Support it and be there.
 
Public booking is now open, so please make plans. Oxford's not that far from London and the two key weekends are unmissable. October is perhaps the best time to be in Oxford, since the crowds are gone and, in the mist, the city takes on melancholy, timeless romance. Wonderfully atmospheric. That's the Holywell Music Room, where most concerts take place. (Photo : Peter Trimming)  It's the oldest public music room in the world. Mozart, Handel and Haydn played here, and many others. It seats only 150 people, ideal for a genre like Lieder where intimate, personal communication is of the essence. No-one makes big money from audiences this size, so that's all the more reason to support the Oxford Lieder ethos.

This year's programme is ambitious. Wolfgang Holzmair, Hakan Vramsmo, James Gilchrist, Miah Persson, Roderick Williams, Felicity Lott, Thomas Allen,  Florian Boesch, Mark Stone, Sarah Connolly, Birgid Steinberger, Graham Johnson, Anna Larsson, and many others. Many big names appear at Oxford Lieder long before they reached the really big time. This year Gary Griffiths and Marcus Farnsworth, for example, who have already made an impact. Indeed, one of the many fine things about Oxford Lieder is the way it nurtures talent, for the young are the lifeblood of the future.

Only three concerts featured in the first festival in 2001, but they were the three Schubert song cycles. cornerstone of the genre. This year the first weeked (14th to 17th October) is an intensive immersion in Schubert, where nearly everything he wrote for voice will be included. All day and evening, plus talks!

The second weekend  (22-23 October) will be worth travelling much longer distances than usual for it's an immersion in Scandinavian song, long a speciality of Oxford Lieder.  Rangstrom, Nystroem, Stenhammer, Petersen-Berger etc, featuring singers like Miah Persson who normally would play much bigger houses like Glyndebourne but sings at Oxford Lieder because they're reaching an audience who knows and cares.  Book for this straight away, even if Swedish song is new to you, because it's a treasure house of fascinating gems.

Thius year's Festival features no fewer than 33 recitals, as well as talks before every evening concert, a 2-day study event looking at Wagner and his influence on Liszt and Wolf, the launch of Volume 2 in Oxford Lieder’s recordings of the complete songs of Hugo Wolf, (please see review of Vol 1 HERE).

Oxford Lieder is committed to commissioning new work. This year's composer is award-winning Charlotte Bray, who has written a song cycle for baritone and piano based on the poetry of Fernando Pessoa, the eccentric Portuguese fantasist. (Lots more about Pessoa on this site, please search on "Pessoa"). Roderick Williams sings, so this should be a highlight. (27th October)

Central to the Oxford Lieder Festival philosophy is the idea of giving back to society something of what Lieder has given us : the joy of song.  Hence the very much acclaimed residential masterclass, which give intensive, specialist development for experienced pairs of singers and pianists. Yet anyone can experience the pleasure of singing - lots of work is done with schools, with amateurs as well as professionals.

I've supported the Oxford Lieder Festival since year two, so naturally I sing its praises, but there's quite a big circle of long-term and new supporters for the simple reason - it's unique and an extremely important contribution to the art of song and performance. For more information, see the website and book soon.