Britten - The Complete Canticles (Julius Drake & friends)

Saturday 17th - 8.00pm

Tickets £20 (conc. £17)

Sunday 18th - 11.30am and 2.30pm

Tickets £15 (conc. £12) per concert

Britten Weekend Pass £40 (conc. £35)

Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976)

The Five Canticles

and works by Purcell, Beethoven and Schubert

Supported by trufflehunter

Britten’s five Canticles are some of the great 20^th-century works for voice, not written as a cycle but spanning almost the whole of Britten’s compositional life. All feature the tenor voice, combined with various combinations of other voices and instruments. This weekend is an opportunity to hear all five Canticles, as well as other works which influenced and inspired Britten, and some more of his own works and arrangements. The programme has been devised by pianist Julius Drake and already performed on several occasions to great acclaim. This weekend becomes a mini festival within the Festival – a fantastic team of artists has assembled, and there is such a range of wonderful music that one cannot fail to be inspired by it.

Lunch will be available between the Sunday concerts in the atrium of the JDP.

Concert 1:

Benjamin Britten - Canticle No. 1, "My beloved is mine" (Op. 40)

Ludwig van Beethoven  - Horn Sonata in F major (Op. 17)

Benjamin Britten - Canticle No. 3, "Still falls the rain" (Op. 55)

INTERVAL

Franz Schubert - Schwanengesang (D957), songs 1 to 7 (Rellstab settings)

Franz Schubert - Auf dem Strom

Concert 2

Benjamin Britten - Harp Suite (Op. 83)

Benjamin Britten - Canticle No. 5, "The death of St Narcissus" (Op. 89)

Benjamin Britten - Folksong arrangements

• The Last Rose of Summer
• The Foggy Foggy Dew
• Bonny at Morn
• Down by the Salley Gardens
• The Ashgrove
• Sweet Polly Oliver
• O Waly, Waly
• Oliver Cromwell

Concert 3

Henry Purcell - Songs from Orpheus Britannicus and Harmonia Sacra

• Music for a While (arr. Tippett, Bergmann)
• Let the dreadful Engines of eternal will (arr. Tippett, Bergmann)
• Sweeter than Roses (arr. Britten)
  
• Pious Celinda (arr. Britten)
• In the black, dismal dungeon of despair (arr. Britten)
• Three Divine Hymns (arr. Britten): "Lord, what is man", "We sing to Him" and "Evening Hymn"

Benjamin Britten - Canticle No.2, "Abraham and Isaac" (Op. 51)