Hamish McLaren (countertenor)
Ana Beard Fernández (soprano)
Matthew Jorysz (piano)
The vivid, metaphysical poetry of John Donne is an endless source of inspiration to composers. Tonight's recital centres on the world premiere of Things Invisible to See, a new cycle of Donne settings by Michael Berkeley. Commissioned by countertenor Hamish McLaren and performed with pianist Matthew Jorysz, the work explores themes of love, longing and mortality. Soprano Ana Beard Fernández joins them for selected songs by Shostakovich and Purcell, in a programme that traces powerful emotional threads across centuries and continents.
Purcell: If Music be the Food of Love (3rd version - Britten realisation)
Michael Berkeley: Things Invisible to See
-Go and Catch a Falling Star
-The Sun Rising
-John Donne; His Farewell Fancy
-Break of Day
-The Message
Shostakovich: Spanish Songs, Op 100
-Little Stars
Purcell/Britten: I Take no Pleasure
Britten: At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners
Purcell/Britten: Lord, What is Man?
Short interval - 5 minutes
Rubinstein: two Persian Songs (from Op 34)
Purcell/Britten: I attempt from love’s sickness to fly
Shostakovich Spanish Songs, Op 100
-Farewell Granada!
-The first meeting
-Ronda
-The dark-eyed girl
-Dream (Barcarolle)
Purcell/Britten: Lost is my Quiet
Duration: 70 minutes (no interval)
There will be a complimentary drinks reception following the concert.
"Hamish McLaren's rich and sombre voice is perfectly suited to this heart-on-sleeve pathos."
BBC Music Magazine on Hamish McLaren"strong and sweet-toned...this is beautiful singing, somehow both tragic and uplifting."
Opera Today on Hamish McLaren"Ana Beard Fernández shines throughout with her clear, warm, voice that eloquently weaves over the harmonies and is suitably acrobatic…allowing [her] to shimmer and cascade flexibly down the cadenzas…. absolutely at one with the idiom… delivering beautifully characterised cameos"
BBC Music Magazine on Ana Beard Fernández