SONGFEST - Exquisite music of the Romantic era
King’s College Chapel South Road, Taunton TA1 3LA
A celebration of choral and solo song by Brahms, Elgar and Richard Strauss.
Our 2020 concert in King’s College featured a selection of works spanning just 27 years in composition but covering a wealth of human experience. Poetry by Alfred Tennyson, Alice Elgar, Joseph von Eichendorff, Friedrich Rückert and others, set to music expressing love and loss, sorrow and ecstasy by three of the greatest Romantic composers, each of whom was also represented by sublime songs for mezzo-soprano and piano. The concert also featured several rarely-performed gems, such as a selection from Brahms' Gipsy Songs and Strauss' Seven Songs (written while still a teenager), alongside well-loved classics like Elgar's ever-popular From the Bavarian Highlands.
R STRAUSS Sieben Lieder (selection): Winterlied; Spielmannsweise; Pfingsten; Schneeglöcklein lacht; Trüb blinken nur die Sterne
R STRAUSS (solo) Allerseelen; Morgen!
BRAHMS Tafellied; Einförmig ist der Liebe Gram
BRAHMS (solo) Wie Melodien zieht es mir; Die Mainacht
BRAHMS Gypsy Songs (selection): Gypsy, ho!; Would you like to know; Heav’n alone can tell; Roses grow all in a row; Dearest, dost thou ever; Far and wide; Rosy clouds of evening
ELGAR My love dwelt in a Northern land; There is sweet music
ELGAR (solo) In Moonlight; Pleading; A Child asleep
ELGAR From the Bavarian Highlands: The Dance; False Love; Lullaby; Aspiration; On the Alm; The Marksmen
Karen Wise mezzo-soprano
Anita D’Attellis piano
Richard Laing conductor
