Fresh from his starring role in the Coronation, celebrated baritone Roderick Williams OBE joins acclaimed pianist and broadcaster Iain Burnside to open our 2023 festival.

Together, they will tell us the truth about love, with songs by composers including Purcell, Rachmaninov, Debussy, Quilter, Shaw, Beamish and many others.

Roderick Williams – baritone

Iain Burnside – piano

Programme / Rhaglen

Henry Purcell (1659-95)

If Music be the food of love – Henry Heveningham

Ah, how sweet it is to love – John Dryden

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)

From Cinq Mélodies de Venise – Paul Verlaine

Mandoline 

En sourdine 

Green 

Purcell

Let the Dreadful engines of eternal will – Thomas d’Urfey

Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943)

Ona, kak polden khorosha (Op.14 No.9) – Nikolai Minsky

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Colloque sentimental – Paul Verlaine

Rachmaninov

Fchera mi fstr’etilis (Op 26. No. 13) – Yakov Polonsky

O, net, molyu, ne uxodi! ( Op. 4 No.1) – Dmitri Mereschkovsky

Debussy

Green – Paul Verlaine

Beau Soir – Paul Bourget

Rachmaninov

Zd’es kharasho (Op.21 No.7) – Glafira Galina

Ya bil u n’ej (Op.14 No. 4) – Aleksey Koltsov

Interval

Roger Quilter (1877-1953) 

7 Elizabethan Lyrics

ii. My Life’s Delight – Thomas Campion

iii. Damask Rose – anon

iv. The Faithless Shepherdess – anon

v. Brown is my Love –  anon

i. Weep you no more – anon

vi. By a Fountainside – Ben Jonson

vii. Fair House of Joy – anon

Clara Schumann (1819-96)

Liebst du um Schönheit – Friedrich Rückert

Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-47)

Nähe des Geliebten – J W von Goethe

Josephine Lang (1815-80)

Abschied – Ernst Schulze

Robert Schumann (1810-56)

Er, der Herrlichste von allen – Adelbert von Chamiss

Caroline Shaw (1982-)

How do I find you – Caroline Shaw

Sally Beamish (1956-)

Nightingale (from 4 Hafez Songs) – tr. Jila Peacock

Cheryl Frances Hoad (1980-)

The Pros and Cons – Sophie Hannah

Gerald Finzi (1901-56)

I said to Love – Thomas Hardy

Benjamin Britten (1913-76)

Tell me the truth about Love – W H Auden