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Past Events > 2019

72. Four Last Songs: Carolyn Sampson & Joseph Middleton

24 October 2019, 20:00 - 21:50

Concert

Evening

Thumbnail of Saint John the Evangelist

Saint John the Evangelist

Iffley Road,
Oxford,
OX4 1EH

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.

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Programme

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Artist Portrait

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
Artist Portrait

Joseph Middleton

Joseph Middleton

Pianist

Joseph Middleton is Director of Leeds Lieder, Musician in Residence at Pembroke College, Cambridge and a Fellow of his alma mater, the Royal Academy of Music, where he is a professor. He was the first accompanist to win the Royal Philharmonic Society's Young Artist Award. He is a frequent guest at major music centres, including New York’s Alice Tully Hall, Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Konzerthaus Vienna, Zurich Tonhalle, Kölner Philharmonie, Oper Frankfurt, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Musée d’Orsay Paris, Oji Hal... Read Full Biography
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This event is part of a series:

Tales of Beyond - Magic, Myths and Mortals

11 October 2019, 10:00 - 26 October 2019, 23:00

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....