Last Sunday was Volkstrauertag, Germany’s remembrance day. In the German war cemetery in Ysselsteyn, the Netherlands, we stood still for the victims of conflict, surrounded by the graves of over 32,000 people.
It was an honour to sing and to be silent.
Photo: Boris van Beijnum
I’m looking forward to giving an evening recital as part of a series of concerts about language and music. Together with pianist Han Louis Meijer, I will present different musical settings of poems by W.B. Yeats, A.E. Housman, and John Masefield. Composers include Amy Summers, Rebecca Clarke, Dilys Elwyn Evans, Benjamin Britten, and George Butterworth.
Thursday, 30th November, 2023, 20:15, De Leidse Salon, Leiden. For tickets, please visit this webpage.
Reynaldo Hahn
On Wednesday, 15th November, pianist Lieselotte van Tol and I will give a recital of early-twentieth century and romantic music in Schiedam, the Netherlands.
For more information, please visit this webpage.
I’m delighted to be joining conductor Ronald Corp, the New London Orchestra, Highgate Choral Society, and soloists Gweneth Ann Rand, Ruairi Bowen, and Felix Kemp for a performance of Elijah in London this Saturday. The alto solos are glorious and include singing as Elijah’s guiding angel and as Queen Jezebel.
Saturday, 11th November, 2023, 19:00. For tickets, please visit this webpage.
On Tuesday, 7th November, Lieselotte van Tol and I will give a lunchtime recital in Leiden, the Netherlands. We will present a programme of mostly romantic music from France, Germany, and England.
For more information, in Dutch, please visit this webpage.
I’m deleighted to be singing as a soloist in Duruflé’s Reqiuem this All Souls’ Day.
Maurice Duruflé began composing his requiem in 1941, when France was largely under Nazi occupation. The Vichy Regime approached several French composers to request substantial compositions, ostensibly in order to preserve French culture in the face of occupation. Duruflé was one such composer.
Duruflé based his requiem on the Gregorian Missa pro defunctis, the first composer known to do so since Victoria in the sixteenth century. Having been a chorister at Rouen Cathedral from the age of ten, Duruflé was already immersed in Gregorian Chant. Under Nazi occupation, with culture and traditions under threat, it strikes me as very natural that Duruflé should turn to music that had been sung for many centuries, especially when it was the music of his childhood. In this sense, I feel that Duruflé’s requiem is not only a traditional requiem to mark a death (it was dedicated to his father), but also a requiem for France herself: for those traditional parts of French culture and tradition that were under threat.
I will sing the mezzo-soprano solos in a performance with the Leidse Cantorij, with conductor Hans Brons, organist Willeke Smits, and cellist Ruud Meester.
Sunday, 5th November, 17:00, Hooglandse Kerk, Leiden
Free entrance, no reservations necessary
With the Samarobriva Pipes and Drums.
Source: Région Hauts-de-France
On Saturday, 21st October, the Thiepval Memorial was reopened after careful and loving restoration by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It was a deep honour to sing at the opening ceremony. Pianist Lieselotte van Tol and I performed music linked to the Battle of the Somme. The event marked the 90th anniversary of the memorial, and the listing of the memorial, along with other war graves on the Western Front, as a UNESCO World Heritage Sight.