Social DistanSong Day Five: Lotte Betts-Dean & Ensemble x.y

01 April 2020, 10:00am - 11:55pm

It's day five of 'Social DistanSong', tracking what would have been our new Spring Song festival. Helen Abbott has sent us an adapted version of her talk, 'What's the Stress? Finding your Feet with French poetry,' and in place of her work with the Mastercourse students, she's had a fascinating chat with soprano Mary Bevan and pianist Joseph Middleton, talking about their experiences of French song. Lotte Betts-Dean and members of Ensemble x.y have also made a film talking about their programme and contemporary song more generally, alongside some further listening recommendations, and we've posted a film of Lotte's and Joseph Havlat's winning audition recital last year for the Young Artist Platform. We hope you're enjoying everything so far.

Remember that you can find texts and translations of all the songs that were due to be performed today in the 'Explore' section on the main menu above, or by going to the original event listing and clicking on the Programme tab.

Helen Abbott presents her talk 'What's the Stress? Finding your Feet with French Poetry':

[youtube url=https://youtu.be/eSzEnT9r448]

Helen is joined by Mary Bevan and Joseph Middleton for a conversation about French song and its interpretation:

[youtube url=https://youtu.be/89SpbijxZJs]

Lotte Betts-Dean and members of Ensemble x.y. discuss their programme and contemporary song more generally. A listening playlist is below.

[youtube url=https://youtu.be/4422pDqzm6A]

Here are links to the works referenced by Lotte and Ensemble x.y:

Nørgård “Day and Night”

Saariaho “Die Aussicht” recorded by Anu Komsi and Avanti

Sciarrino “Vanitas” (this isn’t mentioned in the Video but was on the original programme. This is an excerpt, performed by Lotte and Ensemble x.y)

Here's a full recording of Zubel’s 'Cascando', an excerpt of which is featured on the video, recorded live at St Johns Smith Square.

A number of other recordings of contemporary vocal works, including David Bird’s “Series Imposture” and songs by Brett Dean, Judith Weir and Wolfgang Rihm are on Lotte Betts-Dean's website: https://www.lottebettsdean.com/listen

Remind yourself of Lotte Betts-Dean and Joseph Havlat's winning recital at the Young Artist Platform auditions last year:

[youtube url=https://youtu.be/ggqZVtLtmrg]