SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Rising stars of the music profession join internationally renowned singers in the well-established celebration of song - The Oxford Lieder Festival - which will take place from 16 – 31 October in and around Oxford. Concerts include the complete Britten Canticles in a three-concert programme devised by Julius Drake, and the three Schubert cycles sung by three of the world’s finest recitalists: Wolfgang Holzmair, the legendary Austrian baritone, singing Winterreise (20 October)Christopher Maltman singing Die Schöne Müllerin (30 October) and James Gilchrist singing Schwanengesang (31 October.)

Other highlights include The Prince Consort performing the European Premiere of contemporary American composer Ned Rorem’s Evidence of Things Not Seen (25 October), Roderick Williams, one of Britain’s best-loved baritones, singing Schumann’s Kerner Lieder (26 October), and the first performance at the Festival by the renowned tenor Werner Güra (29 October.) In a new partnership with the Kathleen Ferrier Awards, tenor Ben Johnson, winner of the 2008 competition, sings songs by Wolf and Schubert on 22 October. Other musicians taking part include Joan Rodgers, William Berger, Daniel Norman, Graham Johnson, Malcolm Martineau and Roger Vignoles.

As well as the main evening concerts there will be talks and workshops, a week-long Master Course led by Sarah Walker, a lunchtime concert series and a remarkable education programme in three schools in Wallingford involving around 100 children.

The Oxford Lieder Festival is now in its eighth year, and has grown rapidly to become the biggest annual celebration of song in the UK. As well as bringing international stars to the city, Oxford Lieder has a commitment to showcasing the finest emerging talent and to taking music and its multi-layered benefits into the Oxfordshire community.

The programme is as follows:

Friday 16^thOctober

1.45pm Wallingford School, St George’s Rd, Wallingford. Given by children from two primary schools, Crowmarsh & Fir Tree, and one secondary school, Wallingford – the culmination of their song workshops of the previous two weeks

8pm The Jacqueline du Pré Music Building. Opening recital. Rowan Hellier (mezzo) and  William Berger (baritone) with Festival director Sholto Kynoch (piano). Des Knaben Wunderhorn – songs by Mahler, Brahms, Schumann & Sinding.

Saturday 17^thand Sunday 18^th

Sat 10.30am–1pm; The Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, Voice & Presence, a singing workshop, led by Fiona Dobie (soprano).

Sat 8pm; Sun 11.30am & 2.30pm; The Jacqueline du Pré Music Building. Canticles by Benjamin Britten and works by Beethoven, Purcell and Schubert, as a mini-festival within a Festival, in three recitals. Presented and devised by Julius Drake (piano) with William Towers (counter-tenor), Daniel Norman (tenor), Nigel Cliffe (baritone), Lucy Wakeford (harp), and Richard Watkins (horn). 

Tuesday 20^th

1.10pm; The Holywell Music Room. Lunch with Schumann, given by students from a leading British conservatoire.

8.pm:  The Holywell Music Room. Wolgang Holzmair (baritone), Andreas Haefliger (pianist)Schubert’s Winterreise.

Wednesday 21^st

8pm The Holywell Music Room. A Mendelssohn Songfest. Song Circle, featuring outstanding current students of the Royal Academy of Music, in a programme devised by Richard Stokes. Aiofe Miskelly (soprano), Roderick Morris (counter-tenor), Peter Davoren (tenor), Marcus Farnsworth (baritone) with pianists Christopher Hopkins and Colin Scott.

Thursday 22^nd

1.10pm; The Holywell Music Room. Lunch with Schumann, given by students from a leading British conservatoire

8 pm; The Holywell Music Room.  Ben Johnson (tenor) and James Southall (piano) - winners of the 2008 Kathleen Ferrier Awards (First Prize and Accompanist’s Prize). Songs by Schubert and Wolf.

Friday 23^rd

8.pm; The Jacqueline du Pré Music Building. Rhona McKail (soprano) and Sholto Kynoch (piano). Programme to include songs by Gounod, Poulenc, Strauss and Britten

Saturday 24^th

North Wall Arts Centre Mastercourse sessions with Sarah Walker until Tuesday, with guest tutors Malcolm Martineau, Eugene Asti and Roger Vignoles.

8pm; The Holywell Music Room. Joan Rodgers (soprano) and Malcolm Martineau (piano).Settings of Pushkin, to coincide with a new release on Hyperion(prefaced by 15 Minutes of Fame – with an emerging duo of outstanding potential)

10pm;  New College Ante Chapel Late-night concert. Diana Moore (mezzo soprano) and John Reid (piano) Haydn’s dramatic cantata Arianna a Naxos and  Schoenberg’s cycle The Book of the Hanging Gardens (1908/9)

Sunday 25^th

8pm; The Holywell Music Room. The Prince Consort.  Ned Rorem’s epic song cycle, Evidence of Things Not Seen European Premiere. The cycle is set to a wide range of poetry, and contains solo songs, duets, trios and quartets – four singers & one pianist. The Prince Consort release their debut disc of Rorem songs on Linn Records this October

Monday 26^th

8pm; The Holywell Music Room. Roderick Williams (baritone), Andrew West (piano). Schumann: Kerner Lieder, and songs by Korngold and Mahler

Wednesday 28^th

8pm; The Holywell Music Room. Mastercourse Participants’ Concert.

Thursday 29^th

1.10pm; The Holywell Music Room. Lunch with Schumann, given by students from a leading British conservatoire.

8pm; The Holywell Music Room. Werner Güra (tenor) and Roger Vignoles (piano). Songs by Schubert, Wolf and Schumann.

Friday 30^th

8pm; The Holywell Music Room. Christopher Maltman (baritone) and Graham Johnson (piano). Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin.

10pm; New College Ante Chapel. Martin Sturfält (piano) Mendelssohn Songs without Words and Liszt’s Petrarch Sonnets.

Saturday 31^st

11am – 3.30pm; The Jacqueline du Pré Music Building.  Study Day:  Music and Poetry in fin-de-siècle Paris introducing some of the musical-poetic collaborations that made this era so famous. Two lectures jointly presented by Dr Helen Abbott and Dr Chris Collins, either side of lunch and a recital : 11.20am Baudelaire and his composers, 2.30pm Harmonising poetry and music: a case study. The project culminates a 10-month Leverhulme-funded residency for Oxford Lieder’s artistic director, Sholto Kynoch, working alongside the Words and Music Research Group at Bangor University.

1.10pm; The Jacqueline du Pré Music Building. Mary Bevan (soprano), Sholto Kynoch (piano) and women's chorus from Oxford University singers. Songs by Fauré, Charpentier & Debussy’s Cinq poèmes de Baudelaire.

8pm; The Jacqueline du Pré Music Building. James Gilchrist (tenor) with Anna Tilbrook (piano,)Schubert’s Schwanengesang (prefaced by 15 Minutes of Fame – a recital by an emerging duo of outstanding potential)

Bill Kenny

Tickets £5 - £30 from 01865 305305 / www.ticketsoxford.com
The Oxford Lieder Festival web site is HERE.