Winter into Spring – The Changing Seasons
27th - 28th February 2021
To lift the spirits after what is set to be a rather bleak winter, we’ve brought forward our spring weekend and will present another online-only 'mini festival', with eight events over two days broadcast live from the Holywell Music Room, and a special late-night concert from Merton College Chapel. Highlights will include the great German baritone Dietrich Henschel singing Winterreise, the Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught in a programme of uplifting spring songs, Britten's Winter Words sung by tenor Joshua Ellicott, and RPS Award-winning soprano Natalya Romaniw. Concerts from the Holywell Music Room will all be presented by BBC Radio 3's Petroc Trelawny.
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Saturday 27th February
11:00 AM
01. Winter Words: Joshua Ellicott & Anna Tilbrook
27 Feb 2021 11:00 | Holywell Music Room
Live-streamed from the Holywell Music Room, presented by Petroc Trelawny Our Winter into Spring weekend gets underway with Benjamin Britten’s astonishing Winter Words: evocative settings of Thomas Hardy that represent one of those perfect meetings of poet and composer. We’re delighted that this cycle, and other winter-themed songs, will be performed by acclaimed tenor Joshua ...
1:30 PM
02. Nardus Williams & Sholto Kynoch
27 Feb 2021 13:30 | Holywell Music Room
Live-streamed from the Holywell Music Room, presented by Petroc Trelawny The exceptional young soprano Nardus Williams made a great impression at the last Lieder Festival in one of our ‘emerging artist’ slots and we are pleased that she is able to return for this recital. She and pianist Sholto Kynoch perform two Purcell songs – 'Sweeter than Roses and his...
5:00 PM
03. Wilhelm Müller’s Die Winterreise
27 Feb 2021 17:00 | Holywell Music Room
Joanna Neilly, German Fellow at St Peter’s College, Oxford, introduces the poet Wilhelm Müller and explores why his poem cycle Die Winterreise reaches further than we think and well beyond Schubert’s great cycle. Joanna’s talk is illustrated by tenor Ted Black with pianist Ana Manastireanu, who were recently finalists in the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Awards. Thi...
7:30 PM
04. Winterreise: Dietrich Henschel & Sholto Kynoch
27 Feb 2021 19:30 | Holywell Music Room
Live-streamed from the Holywell Music Room, presented by Petroc Trelawny Following our earlier Song Connections event, we hear Schubert’s extraordinary response to Müller’s poems in one of his greatest works, Winterreise. Dietrich Henschel is one of the leading international baritones, bringing an illuminating insight to everything he sings. Emerging soprano Anna Cavalie...
10:00 PM
05. Jesu meine Freude: The Choir of Merton College
27 Feb 2021 22:00 | Merton College Chapel
The Choir of Merton College draw the day to a close from the stunning college chapel with a profound and uplifting programme that includes works by Thomas Adès, James Macmillan and William Byrd, all centring on Bach’s motet ‘Jesu meine Freude’. This event will be streamed completely live from Merton College Chapel. Shortly afterwards, it will also be available ...Sunday 28th February
11:00 AM
06. Winners of the Oxford Lieder Young Artist Platform: Joël Terrin & Cole Knutson
28 Feb 2021 11:00 | Holywell Music Room
Live-streamed from the Holywell Music Room, presented by Petroc Trelawny This superb duo won last year’s Oxford Lieder Young Artist Platform. Due to illness they were unable to give their scheduled performance in October so we are glad to present their showcase recital now. They include Ravel’s colourful Histoires Naturelles and songs of spring by composers including Brahms a...
1:30 PM
07. The Beginning of Spring: Poetry and Song after the Death of Stalin
28 Feb 2021 13:30 | Holywell Music Room
Philip Ross Bullock looks at the rebirth of lyric poetry and song after the death of Stalin in March 1953. Tracing how writers and musicians responded to the greater cultural freedom that were integral to the Khrushchev 'Thaw', he examines how lyric forms could respond to important contemporary themes in Soviet society. Philip’s talk is illustrated by three artists who also im...
5:00 PM
08. Arion: Voyage of a Slavic Soul: Natalya Romaniw & Lada Valešová
28 Feb 2021 17:00 | Holywell Music Room
Live-streamed from the Holywell Music Room, presented by Petroc Trelawny This brilliant duo bring a programme of songs from their acclaimed recent CD 'Arion: Voyage of a Slavic Soul.' The disc, with music by Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Dvorák and Janáček, was Gramophone Magazine's Editor's Choice in July 2020 and was described in The Daily Telegraph ...
7:30 PM
09. Tara Erraught & Dearbhla Collins
28 Feb 2021 19:30 | Holywell Music Room
Live-streamed from the Holywell Music Room, presented by Petroc Trelawny Tara Erraught is hailed equally in song as in opera, and has given two memorable Oxford Lieder recitals in recent years. On this occasion she is joined by the leading Irish pianist Dearbhla Collins, and their recital will open with a short group of songs performed by the excellent young baritone James Atkinson. ...