Lieder Festival Opening Concert: Mark Stone & Sholto Kynoch

Pre-concert talk at 7.15pm given by Roderick Swanston

"Mark Stone sounded for all the world like a young Thomas Allen, that other great sea-dog of a baritone."
The Times

Mark Stone is one of Britain’s finest baritones, appearing regularly at English National Opera (most recently as the Count in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro) and on many other major stages around the world. It is a great pleasure to welcome him to give the opening concert of this year’s Oxford Lieder Festival, where he will be joined by Oxford Lieder’s Artistic Director Sholto Kynoch.

Schumann’s ever-popular Liederkreis Op. 24 is the earliest of his song cycles; the settings of Heine’s poetry mark Schumann’s coming of maturity as a song-writer and, as such, this small yet perfectly-formed cycle is the perfect opening to the Festival. Mussorgsky’s thrillingly dark Song and Dances of Death (never previously performed at an Oxford Lieder concert) were written at a time when Mussorgsky faced a macabre preoccupation with death; his personal losses of the 1870s, and his own impending death, are chillingly evident in the powerful pathos of these settings of texts by the impoverished young poet Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov.

Henri Duparc left a legacy of just seventeen songs, but the quality and invention of this tiny output is extraordinary. Tonight’s group of songs includes some of the most popular of these, including the exquisite "Phidylé" and the highly dramtic "La vague et la cloche". The concert ends with a group of songs by that quintessential English composer Roger Quilter, including his wonderful cycle To Julia. We could not hope for a better exponent of these songs than Mark Stone, who has recently recorded a double disc of Quilter. Do not miss this wonderful start to the sixth Oxford Lieder Festival.

Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856)

Liederkreis Op. 24 (Heinrich Heine: 1797 - 1856)

i. Morgens steh' ich auf und frage
ii. Es treibt mich hin
iii. Ich wandelte unter den Bäumen
iv. Lieb' liebchen
v. Schöne Wiege meiner Leiden
vi. Warte, warte wilde Schiffman
vii. Berg' und Burgen schaun herunter
viii. Anfangs wollt ich fast verzagen
ix. Mit Myrten und Rosen

Modest Petrov Mussorgsky (1838 - 1881)

Songs and Dances of Death (Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov: 1843 - 1914)

i. Cradle Song
ii. Serenade
iii. Trepak
iv. The Field-Marshal

INTERVAL

Henri Duparc (1848 - 1933)

Chanson triste (Jean Lahor: 1840 - 1909)
L'invitation au voyage (Charles Baudelaire: 1821 - 1867)
Phidylé (Leconte de Lisle: 1818 - 1894)
Testament (Armand Silvestre: 1837 - 1901)
La vague et la cloche (François Coppée: 1842 - 1908)
Le manoir de Rosemonde (Robert de Bonnières: 1850 - 1905)

Roger Quilter ( 1877 - 1953)

Three Shakespeare Songs Op. 6 (William Shakespeare: 1564 - 1616)

i. Come away, Death
ii. O Mistress mine
iii. Blow, blow thou Winter Wind

To Julia Op. 8 (Robert Herrick: 1591 - 1674)

i. The Bracelet
ii. The Maiden Blush
iii. To Daisies
iv. The Night Piece
v. Julia's Hair
vi. Cherry Ripe