Before we all surrender to the pleasures of summer, we invite you to a moment of musical stillness at the heart of our vocal atelier.
For this final Studio 1 Session, we move to a new setting: the recently renovated Chapel Hall at the Paul van Ostaijen site in Leuven. A unique concert space that, much like our familiar Studio 1 at Flagey, brings together architectural charm, remarkable acoustics, and a sense of intimacy. Close to the singers, you see, hear, and feel how the sound is shaped and comes to life.
The programme brings together a selection from the English choral tradition, with love, melancholy, and poetry as a common thread. At its heart are Benjamin Britten’s Five Flower Songs, inspired by botanical love and echoing composers such as Edward Elgar, who wrote his Three Part Songs as a tribute to his wife Alice, in gratitude for her constant inspiration and support.
Poetry and music go hand in hand: Bob Chilcott draws on a layered sixteenth-century text, Samuel Barber sets James Stephens’ intimate portrait of a secret meeting between lovers in The Coolin, and Roger Quilter turns to the rich world of — inevitably — Shakespeare.
programme
Aaron Copland
Thou, O Jehovah, Abideth Forever (from Four Motets)
Charles Koechlin
Assez calme (from 24 Esquisses pour piano, Op. 41)
Benjamin Britten
Marsh Flowers (from Five Flower Songs, Op. 47)
Ivor Gurney
Spring (from 5 Elizabethan Songs)
Edward Elgar
Love (from Three Part Songs, Op.18)
John Ireland
The Palm and May (from Green Ways)
Roger Quilter
Come Away, Death (from Three Shakespeare Songs, Op. 6)
Samuel Barber
The Coolin (from Reincarnations, Op. 16)
Arthur Sullivan
The Long Day Closes
Edward Elgar
Dream Children, Op. 43
Benjamin Britten
The Evening Primrose (from Five Flower Songs, Op. 47)
Benjamin Britten
The Ballad of a Green Broom (from Five Flower Songs, Op. 47)
Bob Chilcott
The Lily and the Rose