A number of Rayfield Allied's Artists performed at the Oxford Lieder festival this year - you can still watch their performances via the Digital Concert Hall until the end of November, links for each performance below.
Liam Bonthrone – Celebrating Saint-Saens with Benjamin Mead, 9th Oct - https://www.oxfordlieder.co.uk/event/1274
In this two-part Song Connections event, Flora Willson guides us through French composer Camille Saint-Saën's biography as a song composer, also exploring the impact of his fervent patriotism on his song-writing and considering his legacy and status today. This illustrated discussion then follows Saint-Saëns into the scintillating but semi-private world of the late 19th century French salon – a world in which the composer’s own Monday night gatherings were for a time among the most important fixtures.
Helen Charlston – Isolation Songbook with Michael Craddock (baritone) and Alexander Soares, 12th Oct - https://www.oxfordlieder.co.uk/event/1293
Isolation Songbook is a songbook for the modern world that was commissioned and curated by Helen Charlston during 2020. Helen, who has recently become a BBC New Generation Artist, invited 15 composers to respond to their experiences of lockdown. Since then the Songbook has been recorded and widely acclaimed for its rich and inspiring variety. In addition there is a specially commissioned piece by Oxford Lieder from the brilliant young composer Alex Ho.
Carolyn Sampson – Fleurs with Joseph Middleton, 15th Oct - https://www.oxfordlieder.co.uk/event/1266
Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton bring a floral sparkle to the Festival with highlights from their hugely well-received CD Fleurs. This glorious collection of flower-related songs includes works by Purcell, Schumann, Quilter and many French composers, as well as Strauss’s stunning Mädchenblumen cycle. Described in The Guardian as possessing ‘freshness of tone, superb control and subtle sensuality’, it is a huge pleasure to welcome Carolyn Sampson and regular duo partner Joseph Middleton back to the Festival.
Katie Bray – In Search of Youkali recital with Will Vann, 16th Oct - https://www.oxfordlieder.co.uk/event/1327
As a Jewish composer in Germany, Kurt Weill was forced to flee his home in the 1930s, relocate to Paris, and then move to America. With their programme ‘In Search of Youkali’, Katie Bray and William Vann chart Weill’s life through his enduringly popular songs, as he travelled the world in the hope of discovering a place of artistic and personal freedom.
Ilker Arcayurek – Path of Life with Simon Lepper, 19th Oct - https://www.oxfordlieder.co.uk/event/1339
The Turkish-Austrian tenor Ilker Arcayürek has recently released his second disc of Schubert songs with the pianist Simon Lepper, both of which have been widely acclaimed. The programme includes a wonderful selection from the second of these recordings, The Path of Life. A wide range of songs invoke the composer’s philosophical approach to life, where happiness is often tinged with a tear but sadness is never reduced to self-pity.
Stephan Loges – A Schumanniade with Sophie Karthäuser (soprano) and Eugene Asti, 21st Oct - https://www.oxfordlieder.co.uk/event/1359
A top trio of artists perform songs and duets by Robert and Clara Schumann. The centrepiece of the programme is Robert Schumann’s Kerner Lieder, shared between both singers. These songs were the first written after his long-thwarted marriage to Clara and represent an important stylistic change from the songs written in the fraught build-up to the marriage; more introspective and in places unbearably poignant. Alongside this cycle, they include some of Clara Schumann’s songs, which now occupy a justly popular place in the song canon, and several duets
