THE LONDON SONG FESTIVAL
2011
Louise Winter - mezzo soprano
Mary Gifford Brown - speaker
Nigel Foster – piano
A celebration of the life and work of Elizabeth
Barrett Browning (1806-1861) and Mary Elizabeth
Coleridge (1861-1907).
7:30pm Thursday November 3rd 2011
St George, Hanover Square, London W1
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The London Song Festival
The London Song Festival is an annual event founded in 2007
by the pianist Nigel Foster to promote the Song repertoire. It is
the only major event in London devoted exclusively to this
music and takes the form of a season of themed concerts and
master-classes. Song is still the Cinderella of the vocal music
world that is inevitably so dominated by Opera, and the London
Song Festival seeks to follow in the footsteps of pianists
Graham Johnson and Roger Vignoles (both Patrons of the
Festival) in bringing this fantastic music, with its unique
blending of music and poetry, to an ever-wider audience. The
concert programmes combine well-known and rare songs, and
the Festival takes a delight in presenting songs in unexpected
and interesting juxtapositions to create exciting and innovative
programmes. The London Song Festival recognises the central
role that the poetry plays in a listener‘s enjoyment of a song
recital, and the programming and programme notes will always
reflect this by giving the poet equal prominence to the
composer. In short, the essential purpose of the London Song
Festival is to halt the perceived decline of the Song Recital as a
genre, to increase its popularity and (that awful word)
accessibility and to rescue it from the commonly believed
fallacy that it is ‗difficult‘, ‗elitist‘ or ‗in decline‘.
The London Song Festival also acts as a major showcase to give promising young singers a platform to perform
the Song repertoire. The 2011 Festival will feature the winners of some of the most prestigious singing
competitions in the UK.
The London Song Festival also puts on master-classes, which form a very important part of the Festival‘s remit
of promoting the Song repertoire and making it accessible to all. Singers are selected by audition to take part in
one of two classes: a junior class for GCSE and A-Level students and a senior class for those at music college
level. The 2011 masterclasses, devoted to English Song, were given by Ann Murray DBE on 1 November 2011.
Nigel Foster, Director - The London Song Festival
London Song Festival Patrons
Graham Johnson
Yvonne Kenny
Roger Vignoles
Sarah Walker
Forthcoming Events in the 2011 London Song Festival
Thursday November 10th 2011
Anna Leese - soprano, Benedict Nelson - baritone, Nigel Foster - piano
Settings of the English Romantic Poets; Keats, Shelley, Blake, Wordsworth and Lord Byron.
Songs and duets by Roger Quilter, Benjamin Britten, Peter Warlock, William Walton, Frederick Delius, Charles Stanford
and Betty Roe.
Thursday November 17th 2011
Roderick Williams - baritone, Nigel Foster - piano
Settings of A E Housman and Thomas Hardy.
Songs by Gerald Finzi, Gustav Holst, George Butterworth, Ivor Gurney and Arnold Bax.
Thursday November 24th 2011
Marcus Farnsworth - baritone, Iestyn Morris - counter-tenor, Nigel Foster - piano
Settings of Jacobean poets including Robert Herrick, John Donne and Ben Jonson.
Songs by Roger Quilter, Geoffrey Bush, Peter Warlock, Ivor Gurney, Gerald Finzi, Frank Bridge and Lennox Berkeley.
Wednesday November 30th 2011
Laura Casey - soprano, David Stout - baritone, Nigel Foster - piano
A programme of English comedy songs by Flanders and Swann, Noel Coward, Jeremy Nicholas, Betty Roe and others.
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A celebration of the life and work of Elizabeth Barrett Browning
(1806-1861) and Mary Coleridge (1861-1907)
Whether I Live - Mary Coleridge (1861-1907) and Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848-1918)
Thy Hand in Mine (verse 1) – Mary Coleridge and Frank Bridge (1879-1941)
How do I love thee - Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Maude Valerie White (1855-1937)
My Letters - Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Libby Larsen (1950-)
The Year‘s at the Spring – Robert Browning (1812-1889) and Amy Beach (1867-1944)
Through the Sunny Garden – Mary Coleridge and Roger Quilter (1877-1953)
Thy Hand in Mine (verse 2) – Mary Coleridge and Frank Bridge
Now – Robert Browning and Granville Bantock (1868-1946)
Sabbath Morning at Sea (Sea Pictures) - Elizabeth Barrett Browning and
Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
Two Songs from Casa Guidi – Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Dominick Argento (1927-)
1. Casa Guidi
2. The Italian Cook and the English Maid
Interval - 20 Minutes
A Child Asleep – Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
I Send my Heart up to Thee – Robert Browning and Amy Beach
Armida‘s Garden – Mary Coleridge and Charles Hubert Hastings Parry
O to be in England – Robert Browning and Michael Head (1900-1976) (Verse 1 only)
How do I Love Thee? – Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Ned Rorem (1923-)
Love Went A-Riding – Mary Coleridge and Frank Bridge
Three Aspects – Mary Coleridge and Charles Hubert Hastings Parry
Where She Lies Asleep – Mary Coleridge and Frank Bridge
Love in a Life – Robert Browning and Ned Rorem
There – Mary Coleridge and Charles Hubert Hastings Parry
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A celebration of the life and work of Elizabeth Barrett Browning
(1806-1861) and Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861-1907)
Two female poets celebrate their 150th anniversaries in 2011; Elizabeth Barrett Browning died on June 29th 1861
and Mary Coleridge was born nearly three months later on Sept 23rd. Anniversaries are always useful hooks to
hang concerts on, and the combination of the incredible treasure trove of letters that Elizabeth Barrett Browning
left us, together with the rich variety of settings of the words of Mary Coleridge by so many Song composers,
both well-known and rare, seemed to me to offer possibilities for an interesting evening of poetry and music. As I
explored the links between the two poets, the idea for this opening concert of the 2011 London Song Festival was
born. This evening traces the life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning through her own words, illustrated by Mary
Coleridge‘s poems set to music, together with a few settings of the words of Elizabeth Barrett Browning herself
and of her husband Robert. Added into the mix is music by three outstanding, but very different, female
composers: Maude Valerie White, Libby Larsen and Amy Beach.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an inveterate letter writer. Throughout her life she was shy and uncomfortable
with people, with the exception of Robert, and found it very difficult to express her emotions verbally. But on
paper she had no inhibitions. In any case being more or less an invalid for much of her fifty-five year life, social
intercourse was limited. Most famous of all is the so-called ‗Courtship Correspondence‘, beginning with a letter
from Robert to Elizabeth, dated 10th January 1845, in which he tells her of his admiration for her poetry. A
meeting was arranged by Elizabeth‘s distant cousin John Kenyon, who had previously introduced her to
Wordsworth, Tennyson, Carlyle and other eminent literary figures of the time. An astonishing 573 letters chart
the blossoming romance between them, which famously culminated in their secret marriage in Marylebone parish
church and their elopement to Italy. After their marriage the letters continued, to friends in England, to her sisters,
and to her father, though with appalling brutality he never replied, having disinherited her (as he did all of his
daughters who married) and refused to see her on any of her visits to London.
Throughout her life Elizabeth Barrett Browning was a champion of the poor, indeed her enthusiastic embracing
of the cause of Italian independence from the
Austrians was fuelled by her sense of
injustice at the plight of ordinary working
people. She was prominent in the fight
against slavery; the fact that her family wealth
was based on slavery (they had extensive
estates in Jamaica) was doubtless partly at
least the cause of the rift with her father. Her
works frequently champion of the rights of
women, though for some reason (maybe
Robert‘s influence?) this didn‘t translate into
her own life. When her faithful maid Wilson,
who at great personal risk had come to Italy
with them in 1846, announced that she was
pregnant in 1855, she was given the choice of
remaining in the service of the Brownings and
giving the baby away to her sister or leaving
their service and keeping the baby. Elizabeth
had no compassion in this case. In the end
Wilson gave up her baby and stayed with the
Brownings and her husband Ferdinando.
Mary Coleridge is far less well known today
than Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Her life
may be summarised in a few words; she
wrote her first poem at the age of 15. In 1880
she began to write reviews for The Times
Literary Supplement and The Cornhill and
she wrote for the Guardian from 1901. Her
first novel ‗The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus‘
was published in 1893, and her best-known
‗The King with two Faces‘ in 1897, earning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning c1850 Evert A. Duykinck
her £900 in royalties. A meeting with Robert
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Bridges in 1894 resulted in the first publication of her poetry. Like
Elizabeth Barrett Browning Mary was passionate in supporting
working class women, but Mary was far more ‗hands-on‘, teaching at
the London Working Women‘s College from 1895 – 1907. Her
father, Arthur Duke Coleridge was, with Jenny Lind, the co-founder
of the London Bach Choir in 1876. He was a tenor and considered a
career as an opera singer, but is said to have rejected it ‗on moral
grounds‘. Mary‘s younger daughter Florence studied at Royal
College of Music. Robert Browning was a family friend of the
Coleridges, and would often visit them in their house in Cromwell
Place, South Kensington. Was Florence named in honour of the
famous (or infamous) romance? I like to think so… Other family
friends were Alfred Lord Tennyson, Holman Hunt, and Sir John
Everett Millais. In Mary's collection of essays, Non Sequitur (1900),
she describes her feelings when she set eyes on Robert Browning as
he stepped through her front door for the first time: ―I should like to
think of another girl — as gay, as full of bold ambition and not so
shy… I hope she will see the greatest man in the world come in, as I
saw Robert Browning come through the door one evening, his hat
under his arm‖. Though, having a literary mind, it was poetry, and
Browning‘s in particular which inspired Mary from a very early age.
After reading his ‗On a Balcony,' she wrote, 'I think it passed into my
blood'.
So both Elizabeth and Mary shared an adoration of Robert. Both
poets also studied and were fluent in Hebrew and Greek, as well as
French, German, and Italian. Both explored a deep spiritualism in
their work. Mary uses a great deal of Christian imagery in her poetry
(for example in ‗There‘, the final song of this evening‘s concert), but
she disliked Christian doctrines. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was a
devout Christian throughout her life, although her constant ill health
and the all too frequent (and pointless, as she saw them) deaths of her
close friends and the cruelty of her family tested this sorely.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote that ―Christ‘s religion is essentially
poetry - poetry glorified‖. Both women were also fervent believers in
Mary Elizabeth Coleridge c. 1884 by an
Spiritualism; Elizabeth Barrett Browning‘s constant declarations of
unknown photographer
its veracity, and the séances that she attended, especially with her
friends the Storys were a constant source of disagreement between her and Robert, in fact throughout their entire
married life this was the only real cause of rows between them. Mary is known to have taken part in a séance
with Tennyson at his home in Freshwater on the Isle of Wight on two occasions in April 1887.
Links between the two families can be found earlier too. Before John Kenyon introduced Elizabeth Barrett
Browning to Robert for the first time he had introduced her to Samuel Taylor Coleridge. And in 1842 Hartley
Coleridge, the eldest son of Samuel Taylor, had compiled a list of ten British female poets in The Quarterly
Review – Elizabeth Barrett Browning was placed second after Caroline Norton, completely unknown today, but
famous in her time as a feminist and social reformer as well as a poet.
It has been relatively easy, and enormous fun, to find songs to texts by Mary Coleridge that fit hand in glove into
the life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. I hope this evening‘s concert will be an entertaining and informative
exploration of both poets‘ life and work and will perhaps shed new light on the poetry of these two remarkable
women and the music that they both inspired.
Nigel Foster
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Whether I Live - Mary Coleridge (1861-1907) and Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848-1918)
This song comes from Parry‘s English Lyrics Set 9, which consists of seven songs to texts by Mary Coleridge,
published in 1909 in memory of the poet. Four from the set will be sung this evening. This set of songs ―in which
many people think Parry reached the summit of his work as a songwriter‖ (the critic Fuller-Maitland) is the
closest that Parry came to writing a cycle.
Described by Stanford as ―The greatest English composer since Purcell‖, Parry is best known today as the
composer of ‗Jerusalem‘, the coronation Anthem ‗I was Glad‘ and the hymn tune to ‗‘Dear Lord and Father of
Mankind‘, but he also wrote over 100 songs including 12 sets of English Lyrics. As the ‗grand old man‘ of
British music, Parry was the second Director of the Royal College of Music, succeeding Sir George Grove, and
Professor of Music at Oxford University succeeding John Stainer. He was knighted in 1898 and created a baronet
in 1902.
Whether I live, or whether I die,
Whatever the worlds I see,
I shall come to you by-and-by,
And you will come to me.
Whoever was foolish, we were wise,
We crossed the boundary line,
I saw my soul look out of your eyes,
You saw your soul in mine.
Thy Hand in Mine (verse 1) – Mary Coleridge and Frank Bridge (1879-1941)
Frank Bridge set three poems by Mary Coleridge, all of which must be numbered among his greatest songs and
all three will be heard this evening. This song was composed in 1917. Bridge was a pacifist and was very
depressed by the war, and is said to have habitually wandered round the streets of Kensington all night unable to
sleep. He was a pupil of Charles Villiers Stanford at the Royal College of Music, and later became the teacher of
Benjamin Britten before he entered that institution. Britten paid him homage in his ‗Variations on a Theme of
Frank Bridge‘ (1937). A Sussex man, he was born in Brighton and died in Eastbourne. He built a cottage at
Friston, near Eastbourne, as a retreat where he could compose in peace. He is best known for his chamber music,
especially the string quartets, but his 54 songs, written throughout his career, are all very fine examples of the
songwriter's art.
Thy hand in mine, thy hand in mine,
And through the world we two will go,
With love before us as a sign,
Our faces set to every foe.
Thy hand in mine, thy hand in mine.
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How do I love thee - Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Maude Valerie White (1855-1937)
This is a setting of a shortened version of the poem that comes at number 43, the penultimate of ‗Sonnets from
the Portuguese‘, written as a declaration of love to Robert and published in 1850. One of Robert‘s pet names for
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was ‗My little Portuguese‘ because of her swarthy complexion. The title of the set
was intentionally misleading, as Elizabeth Barrett Browning wished to hide the intimate and personal nature of
these poems from the general public.
Maude Valerie White is the first of the three female composers featured in this evening‘s concert. Her life
involved a great deal of travelling; she was born in Dieppe to English parents and spent her childhood in
Heidelberg, Paris and London. At the age of 26 she travelled to Chile to be with her sister after mother‘s death.
Two years later she went to Vienna to study composition with Robert Fuchs, who tried unsuccessfully to
persuade her to write music other than songs. Even before her initial studies at the Royal Academy of Music she
had composed songs in French and German as well as English. The complete poem, listing all eleven ways in
which Elizabeth loved Robert, will be heard in a very different setting by Ned Rorem towards the end of tonight's
concert.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach,
(I love thee purely)
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need,
(I love thee with the breath) of all my life!
and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
My Letters - Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Libby Larsen (1950-)
Libby Larsen was born in Delaware, USA, and has written over 400 works of all genres including 15 operas. In
2010 she was awarded the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music in America jointly
with James Levine.
‗Sonnets from the Portuguese‘ was written for Arlene Auger who previewed the cycle at the Aspen Festival in
1989, and again in 1991 after some revision. Arlene Auger‘s diagnosis of a malignant brain tumour sadly
prevented her from premiering the songs as planned. In March 1993, three months before her death, she wrote to
the composer; ― finally I have been able to find enough peace and quiet, rest and concentration time to listen to
the tape of our piece. Oh Libby, every time I hear our piece the more I fall in love with it. You have really written
something very special, which touches my heart and speaks my intentions from our project. I only regret that I
will not be able to debut (premiere) it and that someone will have that pleasure and honour because it will and
must be performed!‖
My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!
And yet they seem alive and quivering
Against my tremulous hands which loose the string
And let them drop down on my knee to-night.
This said, -- he wished to have me in his sight
Once, as a friend: this fixed a day in spring
To come and touch my hand . . . a simple thing,
Yet I wept for it! -- this, . . . the paper's light . . .
Said, Dear I love thee; and I sank and quailed
As if God's future thundered on my past.
This said, I am thine -- and so its ink has paled
With lying at my heart that beat too fast.
And this . . . O Love, thy words have ill availed
If, what this said, I dared repeat at last!
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The Year’s at the Spring – Robert Browning (1812-1889) and Amy Beach (1867-1944)
Amy Beach, the third female composer in tonight‘s concert, was born in New Hampshire. She was a child
prodigy; by the age of one she could apparently sing forty tunes accurately, by age two she could improvise a
countermelody to any tune her mother sang, by the age of three she had taught herself to read, and she began
composing simple waltzes at the age of four. She began formal piano lessons with her mother at the age of six,
and a year later started giving public recitals.
Life as a concert pianist followed, but all playing stopped with her marriage to Henry Beach, a Boston surgeon 24
years older than her, after which she devoted her life to composition. She wrote many songs; this is probably her
best known. It is the first of a set of three to Robert Browning‘s words, taken from his play ‗Pippa Passes‘ of
1841 which follows the life of the young and innocent Pippa in rural Italy. It is therefore very appropriate for
inclusion in this evening‘s programme!
The year's at the spring,
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hill-side's dew-pearl'd;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in His heaven-All's right with the world!
Through the Sunny Garden – Mary Coleridge and Roger Quilter (1877-1953)
This is the first of ‗Two September Songs‘ composed in 1903 and published 1916. They were written for the
great mezzo-soprano Muriel Foster, as was Elgar‘s ‗A Child Asleep‘, heard later on tonight. The poem is from a
set of three called ‗Chillingham‘, in which Mary Coleridge describes the castle and garden of that name in
Northumberland.
Born in Hove, Roger Quilter was a Sussex man like Frank Bridge. His father was a wealthy stockbroker and art
collector who was created a baronet in Queen Victoria‘s Diamond Jubilee year. He became, with Percy Grainger,
Cyril Scott and Balfour Gardiner, part of the ‗Frankfurt Gang‘, all students at the Hochschule Konservatorium in
Frankfurt. Above all a writer of songs, many of which were written for and sung by the tenor Gervase Elwes.
Elwes was tragically killed in an accident at Boston railway station Massachusetts in 1921 and the Musicians‘
Benevolent Fund was set up in his memory. Quilter‘s music has had a bad press in recent years because of its
perceived sentimentality and old-fashioned tonality. In fact many of his songs have a passion and depth that can
stand proudly in the company of the greatest masterpieces of Lieder and French Mélodies. I am very happy that
Quilter‘s songs are well represented in the 2011 London Song Festival!
Through the sunny garden
The humming bees are still;
The fir climbs the heather,
The heather climbs the hill.
The low clouds have riven
A little rift through.
The hill climbs to heaven,
Far away and blue.
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Thy Hand in Mine (verse 2) – Mary Coleridge and Frank Bridge
My heart in thine, my heart in thine,
Through life, through happy death the same,
We two will kneel before the shrine,
And keep alight the sacred flame.
My heart in thine, my heart in thine.
Now – Robert Browning and Granville Bantock (1868-1946)
One of the stated aims of the London Song Festival is to bring unknown songs and unknown composers to the
attention of audiences. Granville Bantock‘s music has been unjustly neglected for the last half century and is to
my mind due for a re-appraisal and rediscovery, it certainly deserves to be recognised. Bantock was a friend of
Edward Elgar, who wrote of him ―having the most fertile imaginative brain of our time‖. Elgar in fact dedicated
his second Pomp and Circumstance March to Bantock. Born in Notting Hill, his father was a Scottish surgeon
who became President of Royal Gynaecological Society. Granville studied at the Royal Academy of Music, and
was an important conductor as well as a composer, founding the City of Birmingham Orchestra (which became
the CBSO) in 1920. He was knighted 1930 for services to music. He is best remembered today, if at all, for his
epic choral piece Omar Khayyam. Perhaps strangely, one of his biggest admirers was Sibelius, who dedicated his
Third Symphony to Bantock, and who became the first President of the Bantock Society which he formed after
his death.
‗Now‘ is an incredibly romantic and sensual poem, an outpouring of all that his love for Elizabeth Barrett
Browning meant to him, and Bantock certainly wrote music to match.
Out of your whole life give but a moment!
...All of your life that has gone before,
...All to come after it,--so you ignore,
So you make perfect the present; condense,
In a rapture of rage, for perfection's endowment,
Thought and feeling and soul and sense,
Merged in a moment which gives me at last
You around me for once, you beneath me, above me-Me, sure that, despite of time future, time past,
This tick of life-time's one moment you love me!
How long such suspension may linger? Ah, Sweet,
...The moment eternal--just that and no more-...When ecstasy's utmost we clutch at the core,
While cheeks burn, arms open, eyes shut, and lips meet!
Sabbath Morning at Sea (Sea Pictures) - Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Edward Elgar (18571934)
Sea Pictures is a cycle of five songs to different poets. It was commissioned by the Norfolk and Norwich Festival,
and premiered there in 1899 (the same year as the Enigma Variations) by the great contralto Clara Butt with
Elgar himself conducting. Clara Butt also gave the first performance of the piano version in St James‘s Hall
London two days later with Elgar playing. Two weeks after that she sang the cycle a third time, this time for
Queen Victoria at Balmoral.
It is hard to imagine how apprehensive the newly married Brownings must have felt as they crossed the channel
to an unknown future. The overnight crossing from Southampton to Le Havre was rough and they had no idea
what the future would hold for them. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was so seriously ill that Robert feared she
would die, a death that he would have been responsible for, but as dawn broke over the sea on Sunday morning
September 20th 1846 they must have felt a ray of hope and excitement that their new life was beginning.
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The first phrase of the song comes from Helica, a polka Elgar wrote for the Powick Lunatic Asylum in
Worcestershire six years previously. The director of the asylum was very enlightened for his day and believed in
therapeutic power of music. He formed his staff into an ensemble to perform for the patients and organised a
regular series of concerts and Friday night dances for the inmates. Displaying the social conscience that Elgar
shared with both Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Mary Coleridge, Elgar played the violin in this band for many
years and became the Band Instructor in 1879. He wrote numerous pieces for this group over several years.
The ship went on with solemn face;
To meet the darkness on the deep,
The solemn ship went onward.
I bowed down weary in the place;
For parting tears and present sleep
Had weighed mine eyelids downward.
The new sight, the new wondrous sight!
The waters around me, turbulent,
The skies, impassive o'er me,
Calm in a moonless, sunless light,
As glorified by even the intent
Of holding the day glory!
Love me, sweet friends, this Sabbath day.
The sea sings round me while ye roll
Afar the hymn, unaltered,
And kneel, where once I knelt to pray,
And bless me deeper in your soul
Because your voice has faltered.
And though this sabbath comes to me
Without the stolèd minister,
And chanting congregation,
God's Spirit shall give comfort. He
Who brooded soft on waters drear,
Creator on creation.
He shall assist me to look higher,
Where keep the saints, with harp and song,
An endless endless sabbath morning,
And, on that sea commixed with fire,
Oft drop their eyelids raised too long
To the full Godhead's burning.
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Two songs from Casa Guidi – Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Dominick Argento (1927-)
Casa Guidi is a cycle of five songs, first performed in its orchestral version in Minneapolis in 1983 by Frederica
von Stade and Minnesota Orchestra. The piano version heard this evening was premiered a year later in Los
Angeles, again by Frederica von Stade, with Martin Katz plying. The texts are taken from letters written in
Florence by Elizabeth Barrett Browning to her sister Henrietta in England.
Dominick Argento was born Pennsylvania, the son of Sicilian immigrants. He fell in love with Florence when he
studied there with Dallapiccola on a Fulbright Scholarship in the 1950s, an experience he later described as ―lifealtering‖. Currently he divides his time equally between Florence and his home in Minneapolis. A lover of all
things Italian, Argento was deeply inspired by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her story. His many song cycles
are often settings of prose letters rather than poetry, and include ‗Letters from Composers‘ (1968) which sets
letters written by Puccini and Chopin and ‗A Few Words About Chekhov‘ (1996) which uses letters by Chekhov.
His song cycle ‗From the Diary of Virginia Woolf‘, written for Janet Baker in 1974 won the Pulitzer Prize for
Music in 1975.
The Brownings moved into Casa Guidi 20th July 1827 for 3 months, then moved back there on May 9th 1848
when the rooms became available on a long lease. The Brownings hired Alessandro, their Italian cook, shortly
afterwards, but he was instantly disliked by Wilson, their faithful maid who had accompanied them from London,
who was constantly irritated not only by his cooking but also by his boasting of past travels and his constant
assertions of the dubious morality of everything and everyone English, especially from London
Casa Guidi
We more and more like our new apartment.
When I am tired of the sofa we go out on our terrace,
Where there is just room for two to walk -Walk back and forward till the moon rises!
And the moon rises beautif'ly, and drops
Down the grey walls of San Felice.
We are getting on slowly in the furnishing department.
Robert wants a ducal bed for my room -- all gilding and carving.
I persuaded him to get a piano instead.
We have had an illumination throughout the city -And you in England can't guess how beautiful
A Florentine illumination is!
The Pitti Palace opposite us was drawn out in fire!
You would have thought that all the stars
Out of Heaven had fallen into the piazza.
Sometimes he says to me: "Now, Ba, wouldn't it have been wrong
If we two had not married?"
I do love this house -- there's the truth -"Like a room in a novel," this room has been called.
11
The Italian Cook and the English Maid
From beef-steak pies up to fricassees Alessandro is a master.
And from bread and butter puddings to boiled apple-dumplings,
An artist. Only -- he doesn't like Wilson to interfere.
She declares that he repeats so many times a day:
"I've been to Paris -- I've been to London -I have been to Germany -- I must Know."
Also he offends her by being of opinion that:
"London is by far the most immoral place in the world."
(He was there for a month once.)
And when she talks of the domestic happiness enjoyed in England.
He shakes his head disputatiously, and bids her
"Not to take her ideas of English domestic life from the
Signor and Signora -- who were quite exceptions -He never saw anything like their way of
Living together certainly, though
"He had been to Paris, and been in London, and been in Germany -No, the Signor was an angel, and there was the truth of it -Yes the Signora was rather an angel too -- she never spent
Two thousand scudi on her dress, as he had seen women do -So the Signor might well be fond of the Signora -But still for a Signor to be always sitting with his
Wife in that way, was most extraordinary and
"He had been to Paris, and been to London" and so on 'da capo'So poor Wilson's head goes round she declares, and she
Leaves the field of battle from absolute exhaustion.
Interval - 20 Minutes
12
A Child Asleep – Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
This song is dedicated to Muriel Foster, Elgar‘s favourite mezzo, on the first birthday of her son Anthony Goetz,
Dec 26th 1909, ‗for his mother‘s singing‘. Muriel Foster (1877-1937) was a frequent performer of his Sea
Pictures, and also in The Dream of Gerontius. She is also the dedicatee of the Roger Quilter song heard earlier
this evening.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning‘s son Robert Wiedemann, always known as Pen, was born on March 9th 1849. He
was to be their only child in a succession of miscarriages. After dropping out of Oxford (he spent most of his time
rowing), Pen studied painting and sculpture with Rodin in Paris and went on to exhibit in both London and Paris.
In 1887 he married Fannie Coddington, an American heiress, and moved to the Palazzo Rezzonico in Venice.
The marriage ended in 1890, after which Pen stayed in Italy until his death in Asolo in 1912.
How he sleepeth!…
Vision unto vision calleth,
While the young child dreameth on.
Fair, O dreamer, thee befalleth
With the glory thou hast won!
Darker wert thou in the garden, yestermorn, by summer sun.
We should see the spirits ringing
Round thee, -- were the clouds away.
'Tis the child-heart draws them, singing
In the silent-seeming clay -Singing! -- Stars that seem the mutest, go in music all the way.
Softly, softly! make no noises!
Now he lieth dead and dumb -Now he hears the angels' voices
Folding silence in the room -Now he muses deep the meaning of the Heaven-words as they come.
He is harmless – we are sinful, -We are troubled -- he, at ease:
From his slumber, virtue winful
Floweth outward with increase -Dare not bless him! but be blessed by his peace -- and go in peace.
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I Send my Heart up to Thee – Robert Browning and Amy Beach
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert, the two year old Pen and the ever faithful Wilson set off from Casa Guidi on
a journey to London on May 3rd 1851. Elizabeth Barrett Browning‘s ‗Sonnets from the Portuguese‘ had been
published in London the previous November, and she was being touted as the next Poet Laureate (in fact
Tennyson was appointed in the end). Their journey was via Venice, where this poem, originally called ‗In a
Gondola‘ was written. Amy Beach has set just the first part of this long (232 lines) poem, which takes the form of
a dialogue between two lovers. Elizabeth Barrett Browning fell in love with Venice: they rented an apartment
overlooking the Grand Canal, ―I can‘t describe what the scene is, the mixture of intricate beauty and open
glory… the mystery of the rippling streets and soundless gondolas‖, she wrote. Unfortunately neither Robert nor
Wilson seemed to share her enthusiasm. Their journey to London continued via Switzerland and Paris
I send my heart up to thee, all my heart
In this my singing,
For the stars help me, and the sea, and the sea bears part;
The very night is clinging
Closer to Venice' streets to leave one space
Above me, whence thy face
May light my joyous heart to thee, to thee its dwelling place.
Armida’s Garden – Mary Coleridge and Charles Hubert Hastings Parry
Armida is a character created by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso in ‗Gerusalemme Liberata‘ (1580), who has
since passed into folklore. There are several incarnations of story as Tasso edited and revised it frequently. Set at
the time of the First Crusade and the Siege of Jerusalem in 1099, in most versions the sorceress Armida is the
niece of the king of Damascus. She is sent to murder the Christian knight Rinaldo, but instead falls in love with
him and creates an enchanted garden where she holds him a lovesick prisoner. Subsequently Armida‘s Garden
has come to symbolise forbidden pleasures. The story has been very influential over the centuries and forms the
basis for operas and musical dramas by Vivaldi, Handel, Gluck, Salieri, Haydn and Rossini among others, and
paintings by Lorenzo Lippi, Poussin, Delacroix, Boucher and Tiepolo.
I have been there before thee, O my love!
Each winding way I know and all the flowers,
The shadowy cypress trees, the twilight grove,
Where rest, in fragrant sleep, the enchanted hours.
I have been there before thee. At the end
There stands a gate through which thou too must pass.
When thou shalt reach it, God in mercy send
Thou say no bitterer word, love, than "Alas!"
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O to be in England – Robert Browning and Michael Head (1900-1976) (Verse 1 only)
Michael Head was a singer and a pianist, he frequently accompanied himself and his debut at the Wigmore Hall
in 1929 was such a concert. I believe there exists a video of him playing and singing, with cigarette hanging out
of corner of his mouth. Like Frank Bridge and Roger Quilter, Michael Head was a Sussex man, born in
Eastbourne. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music where he was appointed professor of piano in 1927, a
post he held for 48 years until his retirement in 1975. A lover of cats, one of his most charming and delightful
songs is ‗The Matron Cat‘s Song‘ (1936), dedicated to the Academy Cat.
Robert was always nostalgic for England, Elizabeth Barrett Browning on the other hand was very understandably
glad to leave it. She came to think of herself (and Pen) as true Italians, while Robert always thought of himself as
English. After her death he came to England with Pen and settled in London for the next 25 years, never going
back to Florence.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning always hated the couple‘s visits back to England; whether by chance or design their
lodgings in London were always near the family home at 50 Wimpole Street, Elizabeth Barrett Browning mind
was torn between wanting to meet her father and yet being scared of the consequences; she was always careful to
visit her sisters only when he was out and made sure that she had left by the time he returned in the evenings. She
also of course wanted him to see Pen before he died, and an encounter between the father and his grandchild was
finally engineered in 1855.
Oh, to be in England
Now that April's there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England - now!
How do I Love Thee? – Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Ned Rorem (1923-)
This is taken from ―Evidence of Things Not Seen‖ a mammoth cycle of 36 songs to texts by 24 authors, written
in 1997, sponsored by the New York Festival of Song. It is headed by a quote from Hebrews II:I – ― Faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen‖. In his introduction Ned Rorem says ―although an
atheist, I do believe in Belief‖. New York Magazine called this cycle ―one of the musically richest, most
exquisitely fashioned, most voice-friendly collections of songs I have ever heard by any American composer;"
Chamber Music magazine called it "a masterpiece."
In addition to being a disarmingly frank diarist (he details his relationships with, among others, Noel Coward,
Leonard Bernstein, Samuel Barber and Virgil Thompson), Ned Rorem has written 3 symphonies, 4 piano
concertos and 10 operas. His main work however is writing songs, to date he has written over five hundred. He
studied at the Curtis Institute, Julliard School and with Aaron Copeland.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, - I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! -- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
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Love Went A-Riding – Mary Coleridge and Frank Bridge
The momentous events of 1859, with the victories of the joint Italian and French troops over the occupying
Austrians left Elizabeth Barrett Browning almost hysterical with excitement. This could well have had a
detrimental effect on her health. Her friend William Story described her voice as ‗insistent‘ and her eyes as
‗fixed‘. All this excitement came to nothing of course with the agreement of Villafranca, in which Austria gave
Lombardy to France, and France ceded it to Piedmont in return for a vague promise of Nice and Savoy at some
future date. Though the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed under Victor Emmanuel in March 1861, full Italian
liberation had to wait another twelve years, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning was never to see her dream come
true.
This song was composed in 1914, as the clouds of war were about to be unleashed over Europe. The winged
horse Pegasus is not only a symbol of poetic inspiration but also, fittingly, a bringer of thunder and lightning.
Love went a-riding over the earth,
On Pegasus he rode . . .
The flowers before him sprang to birth,
And the frozen rivers flowed.
Than all the youths and the maidens cried,
"Stay here with us, King of Kings!"
But Love said, "No! for the horse I ride,
For the horse I ride has wings."
Three Aspects – Mary Coleridge and Charles Hubert Hastings Parry
1859 was a traumatic year for the Brownings. A renewed outbreak of fighting threatened them in Florence for the
first time and the treachery (as she saw it) of Napoleon over Villafranca overwhelmed her. During the summer
Elizabeth Barrett Browning suffered her most serious episode of ill health for years. She was unable to move
from her bed for three weeks, found breathing difficult and had severe angina. She lost a lot of weight and was
described by William Story as ―just a shadow‖. The extreme heat in Italy that summer did not help matters. This
poem by Mary Coleridge, written in 1907, sums up the questioning that she must have gone through at this time:
only the love of Robert, who nursed her through her illness with his customary dedication, as described in the
final verse of this song, carried her through.
Some showed me Life as 'twere a royal game,
Shining in every colour of the sun,
With prizes to be played for, one by one,
Love, riches, fame.
Some showed me Life as 'twere a terrible fight,
A ceasless striving 'gainst unnumbered foes,
A battle ever harder to the close,
Ending in night.
Thou - Thou did'st make of Life a vision deep
Of the deep happiness the spirit feels
When heavenly music Heaven itself reveals
And passions sleep.
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Where She Lies Asleep – Mary Coleridge and Frank Bridge
Elizabeth Barrett Browning‘s illness plagued her from the age of 15. The only means available to her doctors to
alleviate her suffering was by giving her laudanum, an opiate derivative, which though giving her short term
relief, ultimately made matters worse. She suffered from serious head and spinal pains and loss of mobility, and
later on infected lungs and serious coughing fits. An invalid for most of her life, she was nevertheless always
incredibly stoical, seldom complaining and always making light of her suffering.
She sleeps so lightly, that in trembling fear
Beside her, where she lies asleep, I kneel,
The rush of thought and supplication staying,
Lest by some inward sense she see and hear,
If I too clearly think, too loudly feel,
And break her rest by praying.
Love in a Life – Robert Browning and Ned Rorem
Elizabeth Barrett Browning died in Robert‘s arms in the early morning of June 29th 1861. Right up to the
evening before she had insisted that she was feeling ―much better‖, but Robert had been awake watching by her
bedside all night. Even though he had known that she was dying for many months, Robert found it very difficult
to come to terms with the death of his beloved wife. This poem describes him wandering through Casa Guidi,
seeming to see her in every room and sensing her presence imbued in every curtain and every piece of furniture.
Ned Rorem wrote this setting in 1951, the year that he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship.
Room after room,
I hunt the house through
We inhabit together.
Heart, fear nothing, for, heart, thou shalt find her,
Next time, herself! -- not the trouble behind her
Left in the curtain, the couch's perfume!
As she brushed it, the cornice-wreath blossomed anew, -Yon looking-glass gleamed at the wave of her feather.
Yet the day wears,
And door succeeds door;
I try the fresh fortune -Range the wide house from the wing to the centre.
Still the same chance! She goes out as I enter.
Spend my whole day in the quest, -- who cares?
But 'tis twilight, you see, -- with such suites to explore,
Such closets to search, such alcoves to importune!
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There – Mary Coleridge and Charles Hubert Hastings Parry
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Florence. Lord Leighton subsequently
designed the elaborate Cararra marble tomb which can be seen there today. On the day of her funeral, Monday
July 1st 1861, all the shops around the Casa Guidi shut as local people mourned her passing. The streets of
Florence were still hung with black following the death of Cavour, the first Prime Minister of Italy a few weeks
previously on June 6th, so it must have seemed to the grieving Robert that the whole city was with him. Needless
to say, there were no Barretts at the funeral.
This song was described as ―a supreme work of art to which no words can do justice‖ by the critic FullerMaitland in his book ‗The Music of Stanford and Parry‘ written in 1934. It seems fitting to end this concert with
this strong statement of faith, which though from the pen of Mary Coleridge, could well have been the thoughts
and feelings of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
There, in that other world, what waits for me?
What shall I find after that other birth?
No stormy, tossing, foaming, smiling sea,
But a new earth.
No sun to mark the changing of the days,
No slow, soft falling of the alternate night,
No moon, no star, no light upon my ways,
Only the Light.
No gray cathedral, wide and wondrous fair,
That I may tread where all my fathers trod.
Nay, nay, my soul, no house of God is there,
But only God.
Programme Notes © Nigel Foster 2011
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Donors
The London Song Festival gratefully acknowledges the generosity and support of the following donors:
The Association of English Singers and Speakers
The Schubert Society of Great Britain
The William Alwyn Foundation
The Byron Society
The Coutts Charitable Trust
The Finzi Trust
Christopher Vajda QC
Drapers Charitable Fund
The German YMCA
The Leche Trust
The Peter Warlock Society
Gedye and Sons Ltd
Gordon Pullenger
Neil Robson
Several anonymous donors
The London Song Festival is a registered charity, no 1120046.
The Schubert Society of Britain
The Schubert Society of Britain is proud to support the London Song Festival.
The Schubert Society of Britain is dedicated to keep Franz Schubert's music alive and to support young musicians. We
organise chamber concerts, which are often not exclusively Schubert, to put his music into context and give the artists a
chance to shine with what they are best at.
If you are interested, feel free to come to the forthcoming Schubertiade on Sunday 15 January 2012 at 15:00.
Membership and concerts only cost a donation, so everyone is able to join us.
Details from: The Secretary, Udo Bauer, Schubert Society, 35 Craven Road, London, WZ 3HL, 020 7723 5684.
www.german-ymca.org.uk/schubert-society.html
THE WILLIAM ALWYN
FOUNDATION
The William Alwyn Foundation was established in April 1990 at
the instigation of the composer‘s widow Mary Alwyn, with the
intention of perpetuating the performance, recording and
broadcast of Alwyn‘s work.
Since the centenary of the composer‘s birth in 2005 the
Foundation has overseen a number of projects that include: an
important new series of recordings for the Naxos Label; three
literary works that include the first full length biography The
Innumerable Dance – The Life and Work of William Alwyn By
Adrian Wright. In addition to this the Foundation has sponsored a
number of live performances across the United Kingdom. In the
autumn of 2009 the Foundation began the publication of a series
of works by Alwyn that had hitherto been unpublished. In
addition to this the Foundation has sponsored a number of live
performances across the United Kingdom.
Recently the Foundation has instigated a new festival focusing
(although not exclusively) on Alwyn‘s musical legacy which will
take place in the county of Suffolk where the composer resided
for the last twenty-five years of his life.
The William Alwyn Foundation is very pleased to be able to
support the London Song Festival 2011 where a few of Alwyn‘s
early songs will receive their first professional performance.
The William Alwyn Foundation is administered by
APK Music Promotions Ltd, 30 Florida Avenue, Hartford,
Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire PE29 1PY.
Tel: 01480-456931 E-mail: [email protected]
EMF Advert
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The Finzi Trust
Honorary Presidents
Sir Thomas Allen CBE Michael Chance CBE
Sir Nicholas Hytner Graham Johnson OBE
Dame Cleo Laine DBE Niven Miller
Patricia Routledge CBE Professor Robert Saxton
www.aofess.org.uk
The AESS is pleased to support the London Song Festival and
wishes it every success.
Our ‘Patricia Routledge National English Song
Competition’seeks to’ encourage the communication of
English in speech and song’. Recent winners: Roderick
Williams, winner in 1994; Iestyn Morris, winner in 2006;
Benedict Nelson, prizewinner in 2008; Marcus Farnsworth,
prizewinner in 2009
We welcome new members. Application forms are on the
website.
Contacts: Chairman: Graham Trew MVO 01547 510327,
Membership Secretary: Patricia Williams 020 8318 6187
Traditional values, personal service
and modern methods.
We have served the local community for over a hundred
years by combining substantial local knowledge with
detailed technical skills and can provide a breadth of legal
advice and assistance, particularly to the retired.
Almost 75% of the firm's business derives from wills,
trusts, estate planning and other issues relating to the
elderly with the remainder comprising of conveyancing
and property related matters.
We have forged strong links with other trusted lawyers to
assist our clients with their additional legal needs and we
can almost always find you just the right person to help.
Contact us: 015395 32313 Fax 015395 32474 Email
[email protected]
The Finzi Trust was founded in 1969 and seeks
to further the music, ideals and work of Gerald
Finzi. It has assisted individuals and
organisations in a variety of ways and has
initiated many projects reflecting the Trust's
policy of encouraging young artists and
composers.
Recording projects have included not only
music by Finzi, but also by Michael Berkeley,
Britten, Ferguson, Gurney, Howells, Leighton,
Lipkin, Sumsion, Poston, Walton and Whitlock.
Other projects initiated by the Trust include
performances, masterclasses and lectures in
the USA, weekends of English music in the UK,
composition awards, song competitions,
composer-in-residence schemes, commissions
and re-publication of out-of-print scores.
www.geraldfinzi.org
Celebrating English Song 2012
English song is celebrated at Tardebigge on three Sunday
afternoons each Summer. The concerts are held in an airy
Georgian church on a hillside overlooking the
Worcestershire plain.
Tardebigge is a tiny hamlet between Bromsgrove and
Redditch, with just a school, old rector and community
hall - to which the audience flocks in the concert interval
for tea and luscious homemade cakes.
Our ninth season has Elizabeth Watts soprano and James
Southall piano (June) and Roderick Williams baritone
(August). The performers for July have yet to be
confirmed. The full programme for 2012 will be available
after Christmas by phone 01527 872422 or the website
www.gedye.co.uk
www.celebratingenglishsong.co.uk
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Biographies
Louise Winter - mezzo soprano
Louise Winter was born in Preston, Lancashire, and studied at the Royal
Northern College of Music. She made her début in 1982 with
Glyndebourne Touring Opera singing Dorabella in Mozart‘s Così fan tutte
and subsequently sang Tisbe La Cenerentola, Zerlina Don Giovanni, and
Rosina Il barbiere di Siviglia for the company. Roles for Glyndebourne
Festival Opera have included Sesto La clemenza di Tito, Eduige Rodelinda,
Varvara Kat’a Kabanova, Pauline Queen of Spades and Olga Eugene
Onegin, which she has also sung for the Royal Opera House and Canadian
Opera Company. Louise also enjoys a strong relationship with ENO, where
roles have included Carmen Carmen and Marguerite La Damnation de
Faust.
Most recently Louise has begun working on more dramatic repertoire,
including Brangäne Tristan und Isolde, Venus Tannhäuser, Preziosilla La
Forza del Destino and Lady Macbeth in Ernst Bloch‘s Macbeth for
Frankfurt Opera.
Louise enjoys concert work with many of the world‘s leading orchestras
and conductors, including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
with Sir Simon Rattle, the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Sir Andrew
Davis, the Hallé Orchestra with Mark Elder, the Philharmonia Orchestra
Louise Winter
Photo: Barney Jones
under Sir Charles Mackerras, and has taken part in many of the BBC
Proms over the last decade. Recital engagements have included
appearances at the Wigmore Hall, St John's, Smith Square, the Théâtre du Châtelet, the Bath, Belfast and City of
London Festivals and at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.
Louise‘s recordings include a disc of songs by Frank Bridge for Hyperion Records with pianist Roger Vignoles,
and DVD recordings of Rodelinda conducted by William Christie, and Eugene Onegin and Kát’a Kabanová
conducted by Sir Andrew Davis.
Recent and future highlights include performances of Dido Dido and Aeneas in London‘s Temple Festival,
Beethoven‘s Ninth Symphony with Carlo Rizzi, Mahler‘s Das Lied von der Erde in York Minster, Mozart‘s
Requiem at Cadogan Hall, Verdi‘s Requiem at the Royal Festival Hall with David Hill and the Bach Choir,
Mahler‘s Rückert Lieder conducted by Paul McCreesh, the title role in a recording of Michael Hurd‘s opera The
Widow of Ephesus, Brahms‘ Alto Rhapsody with the London Mozart Players and Wife in Mark-Anthony
Turnage‘s GREEK for Music Theatre Wales.
Mary Gifford Brown - speaker
Mary Gifford Brown was brought up and educated in Bath. She studied
acting and singing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and is also
a qualified Speech Therapist. Mary has lived and worked in various parts of
the world, Nigeria, the United States of America, Greece and London. She
has been actively involved in numerous theatrical and musical productions
ranging from singing the role of Dido in Purcell's 'Dido and Aeneas' with
the Athens State Orchestra and Chorus to taking part in the film on the life
of D.H. Lawrence, ' The Priest of Love'. During her frequent invitation
tours in the United States and elsewhere, Mary gave dramatised readings to
university and theatre audiences organised by the English Speaking Union,
The British Council and institutions of Womens' Studies. She was
constantly asked whether the material she used was available in book form.
It was thus that Century Hutchinson published her anthology 'Reflections'
with an Introduction by Judy Dench.
Mary Gifford Brown
Mary's second book ' An Illuminated Chronicle ' was published by Bath
Photo: Colin Hobson
University Press. It is the study of the life of the Anglo-Saxon princess and
abess, Milburga of Wenlock. Mary Gifford Brown was married to the late American composer, Francis James
Brown. She has homes both in London and on the island of Andros in the Cyclades, Greece.
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Nigel Foster - piano
Nigel Foster was born in London and studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of
Music and Drama. His teachers were Roger Vignoles, Graham Johnson and Iain Burnside. At both the Academy
and the Guildhall he won every prize and award available for piano accompaniment, and has since been
appointed an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.
Nigel enjoys a busy schedule performing on the concert platform. He has played for singers including Sergei
Leiferkus, the late Philip Langridge, Sarah Walker, Roderick Williams, Louise Winter, Ian Partridge, Neil
Jenkins, James Gilchrist, Jeremy Huw Williams, Katherine Broderick, Yvonne Kenny, Stephan Loges, Stephen
Varcoe and Jane Manning, and instrumentalists including violinist Madeleine Mitchell. He has performed at
major UK venues including the Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre, Royal Opera House Covent Garden (Crush
Room) and St John Smith Square in London, and St David's Hall in Cardiff. Nigel has given concerts all over
Europe; in France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, The Netherlands and Greece, as well as in Asia
(Japan, Malaysia), New Zealand and the Americas (USA, Colombia). He has broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Classic
FM in the UK and on French, Welsh and Greek television.
Nigel is the founder, director and pianist of the London Song Festival, an annual event that promotes the song
repertoire. Singers who have performed at the Festival include Sergei Leiferkus, Roderick Williams, Louise
Winter, James Gilchrist, Stephan Loges and competition winners including Sarah Jane Brandon (Kathleen Ferrier
Award) Jonathan Sells (Guildhall Wigmore Recital Prize) and Anna Devin (Maggie Teyte Prize). Further details
may be seen at www.londonsongfestival.org .
Nigel has given master-classes and led workshops in the song repertoire at summer courses and music
programmes all over the UK, in Belgium and Portugal (OperaPlus) and in Italy (Asolo Festival).
In his formative years Nigel played for Graham Johnson's Songmakers‘ Almanac, the Park Lane Group and
several opera companies including Glyndebourne. Nigel has worked with conductors including Sir John Eliot
Gardiner, playing for singers including Renee Fleming, Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna. He works closely
with Sarah Walker in the Vocal Department at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Nigel‘s musical
interests range from the baroque right through to contemporary music, though his main love and passion is the
song repertoire. He has given premieres of works by many leading composers including John Metcalf, Alun
Hoddinott, Richard Causton, Julian Philips, Edward Rushton and Huw Watkins.
Nigel's CD recordings include several discs of contemporary music and anthologies of songs of Alun Hoddinott
and Mansel Thomas with Jeremy Huw Williams for the Sain label and collections of English song with Stephen
Varcoe. He features on the soundtrack of the French film 'L'Homme est une Femme comme les Autres'.
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