72. Four Last Songs: Carolyn Sampson & Joseph Middleton
24 October 2019, 20:00 - 21:50
Concert
This event will be broadcast from Saint John the Evangelist

Carolyn Sampson (described by The Times as having a ‘purity of tone matched by her dramatic ability to inhabit the spirit of each song in the cycle as though it were a perfectly contained world’) and regular duo partner Joseph Middleton ('the cream of the new generation') perform songs by Haydn (Arianna a Naxos), the young Schoenberg, and Gustav Mahler. After the interval, we hear Debussy’s Chansons de Bilitis, entering the sensuous and suggestive world of Pan and the dryads, and then Richard Strauss’s monumental Four Last Songs.
Explore Debussy's musical responses to Pierre Louÿs's Les Chansons de Bilitis at this afternoon's study event and rush-hour concert.
Programme
Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809)
Arianna a Naxos
Arnold Schoenberg (1874 - 1951)
4 Lieder (Op. 2)
- 1. Erwartung
- 2. Schenk mir deinen goldenen Kamm
- 3. Erhebung
- 4. Waldsonne
-
Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911)
Das Himmlische Leben from Des Knaben Wunderhorn - Das irdische Leben from Des Knaben Wunderhorn
- ~~~ Interval ~~~
-
Charles Koechlin (1867 - 1950)
Hymne à Astarté (Op. 39) from Chansons de Bilitis Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918)
Chansons de Bilitis
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Charles Koechlin (1867 - 1950)
Épitaphe de Bilitis (Op. 39) from Chansons de Bilitis Richard Strauss (1864 - 1949)
Vier letzte Lieder
- 1. Frühling
- 2. September
- 3. Beim Schlafengehen
- 4. In Abendrot

Carolyn Sampson
Carolyn Sampson
Soprano
Equally at home on the concert and opera stages, Carolyn Sampson has enjoyed notable successes in the UK as well as throughout Europe and the US. On the opera stage her roles have included the title role in Semele and Pamina inThe Magic Flute for English National Opera, various roles in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen for Glyndebourne Festival Opera (released on DVD) and both Anne Truelove The Rake’s Progress and Mélisande Pelléas et Mélisande in Sir David McVicar’s productions for Scottish Opera. Internat... Read Full Biography
Joseph Middleton
Joseph Middleton
Pianist
Pianist Joseph Middleton specializes in the art of song accompaniment and chamber music and has been highly acclaimed in this field. Described in Opera Magazine as ‘the rightful heir to legendary accompanist Gerald Moore’, by BBC Music Magazine as ‘one of the brightest stars in the world of song and Lieder’, he has also been labeled ‘the cream of the new generation’ by The Times. He is Director of Leeds Lieder, Musician in Residence at Pembroke College, Cambridge and a Fellow of his alma mater, the Royal A... Read Full BiographyFestival Passes
This event is part of a series:
Tales of Beyond - Magic, Myths and Mortals
The 18th Oxford Lieder Festival will explore life, death, and the mysterious areas between and beyond. Sprites and nymphs cause mayhem and mischief, while legends abound from Greco-Roman sagas to the Lorelei and the Erlking. Storytelling with the Crick Crack Club, a ghost tour, a magic show and more all complement the myriad concerts, masterclasses and study events over a packed fortnight....