Speak, Music
15 October 2026, 7:00pm - 8:45pm
Is it necessary to distinguish between the great songs of classical and popular music, to imply that they have fundamentally different qualities? Alice Coote and Julius Drake think not, and in this gently provocative recital these two world-renowned artists present a seamless sequence of songs that encompasses David Bowie, Henry Purcell, Jacques Brel, K.D. Lang, Mahler, Mozart, Lennon & McCartney, and more, in original versions and new arrangements. Alice Coote describes how ‘we have tried to juxtapose works that say some of the things that we possibly all feel, irrespective of “genre”.’ This programme has been heard at venues including Wigmore Hall and the Boulez Saal in Berlin, to rapturous receptions.
Programme
- Edward Elgar (1857 - 1934)
- Speak, music! (1901) Op. 41
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)
- An die Freude K53
- George Frederick Handel (1685 - 1759)
- Quando mai, spietata sorte from Radamisto HWV12
- Richard Wagner (1813 - 1883)
- Schmerzen (1858) WWV 91 from Wesendonck Lieder
- Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach
- My Thief
- Gabriel Fauré (1845 - 1924)
- Fleur jetée (1884) Op. 39 no.2
- Kurt Weill (1900 - 1950)
- It never was you from Knickerbocker Holiday
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893)
- Moj genij, moj angel, moj drug ('My genius, My Angel, My Friend') (1855) TH 89
- Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856)
- Lieder aus dem Schenkenbuch im Divan I „Sitz ich allein“ (1840) Op. 25 no.5 i–early iv 1840 from Myrthen
- Hugo Wolf (1860 - 1903)
- Denk’ es, o Seele! (1888) No.39 from Mörike-Lieder
- David Bowie arr. Ben Dawson
- Life on Mars
- Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911)
- Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen (1901) from Rückert-Lieder
- Joni Mitchell arr. Ben Dawson
- Borderline
- Leonard Bernstein (1918 - 1990)
- Somewhere
~~~ Interval ~~~
- Graham Peel (1877 - 1937)
- The Early Morning from The Country Lover
- Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963)
- Les chemins de l'amour (1940) FP 106
- Reynaldo Hahn (1873 - 1947)
- L’heure exquise (1890) no.5 from 7 Chansons Grises
- Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)
- Seligkeit (1816) D433
- Thomas Arne arr. Edmonstoune Duncan
- Where the bee sucks
- Liza Lehmann (1862 - 1918)
- Love, if you knew the light
- Irving Berlin arr. Nina Simone
- You Can Have Him
- Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)
- Bist du bei mir BWV508
- Jacques Brel arr. Ben Dawson
- My Death
- John Lennon arr. Ben Dawson
- Imagine
- Richard Strauss (1864 - 1949)
- Morgen! (1894) Op. 27 no.4
