Forgotten Voices: Women Composers in Song / Margarete Schweikert (Part One)
19 March 2022, 11:30 - 17:00
Recital


Presented in association with SWAP’ra
This year’s Spring Song focuses on women composers, the countless gifted figures who vanished from our recital stages. Over the course of four lecture-recitals, with an array of exceptional artists curated and led by the ever-brilliant Natasha Loges, we will celebrate and explore songs by four composers: Hedwige Chrétien, Margarete Schweikert, Elizabeth Maconchy and Johanna Müller-Hermann, showing how their music both fitted into and challenged expectations of song composition in their day. We will also be launching the Forgotten Voices resources about women composers on the Oxford Lieder website.
Margarete Schweikert, 11.30am-12.30pm
Natasha Loges speaker
Kate Kennedy speaker
Harriet Burns mezzo-soprano
Keval Shah piano
Margarete Schweikert (1887-1957) began composing as a child and her works, including songs, had their first major outing at a concert when she was just 17. She wrote at least 160 songs, setting a wide range of poets. This lecture recital features songs by Schweikert, Richard Strauss and Hugo Wolf.
Elizabeth Maconchy, 4pm-5pm
Natasha Loges speaker
Kate Kennedy speaker
James Gilchrist tenor
Keval Shah piano
Denied a scholarship from the Royal College of Music for being a woman who ‘will only get married and never write another note’, Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-1994) became one of the most substantial and respected composers of her time, with a large and important body of songs. This lecture recital features songs by Maconchy and by Benjamin Britten.
SWAP'ra have received generous support from the Wavendon Foundation, the Golsoncott Foundation, the Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust, The Winship Foundation, and the Royal Musical Association.
COVID POLICY
It’s wonderful to be fully back in person, but we still want to ensure that audience, artists and our team feel safe. Please click here to view our latest COVID-19 policies. We will continuously review our safety measures as the situation progresses and government guidance changes. Do please check this page before your visit for the most up-to-date information.
Programme
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Margarete Schweikert (1887 - 1957)
Die Entschlafenen -
Hugo Wolf (1860 - 1903)
Mignon II (no.6) from Goethe-Lieder -
Margarete Schweikert (1887 - 1957)
Zusammen sterben -
Richard Strauss (1864 - 1949)
Auf ein Kind (Op. 47 no.1) -
Margarete Schweikert (1887 - 1957)
Wolke I - Unser Haus
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Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976)
Wild with passion -
Elizabeth Maconchy (1907 - 1994)
In Memory of W B Yeats - II from Three Songs in Memory of W B Yeats - It's No Go - III from Three Songs in Memory of W B Yeats
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Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976)
Wagtail and baby - 'A satire' (Op. 52 no.3) from Winter Words -
Nicola LeFanu (b. 1947)
Lullaby - ‘Lay your Sleeping Head’ from Two Auden Songs

Harriet Burns
Harriet Burns
Soprano
Described as “confident, polished, witty, expressive and sweet toned” (The Times), British soprano Harriet Burns is fast developing a reputation as an acclaimed interpreter of song. She has performed at the Wigmore Hall, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Oxford Lieder and Leeds Lieder Festivals, International Lied Festival Zeist, Ryedale Festival and de Singel with pianists including James Baillieu, Imogen Cooper, Christopher Glynn, Graham Johnson, Sholto Kynoch, Malcolm Martineau, Joseph Middleton and Ian Tindale. In 2019 Harriet’s... Read Full Biography
James Gilchrist
James Gilchrist
Tenor
James Gilchrist began his working life as a doctor, turning to a full-time career in music in 1996. His musical interest was fired at a young age, singing first as a chorister in the choir of New College, Oxford, and later as a choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge. James’ extensive concert repertoire has seen him perform in major concert halls throughout the world with conductors including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Roger Norrington, Bernard Labadie, Harry Christophers, Harry Bicket, Masaaki Suzuki and the late Richard H... Read Full Biography
Keval Shah
Keval Shah
Pianist
Praised as ‘exceptional… deft and responsive’ (The Observer), Keval Shah has quickly established himself at the forefront of a new generation of collaborative pianists, channelling his artistry into work as a recitalist, broadcaster and pedagogue. He has been Lecturer of Lieder at the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki since 2020, an appointment which made him the institution’s youngest professor. He now divides his time between running the song programme at the SibA and appearing in recital at venues and festivals across E... Read Full Biography
Natasha Loges
Natasha Loges
Speaker
Natasha Loges was appointed Professor of Musicology at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg in spring 2022. Her books include Brahms and His Poets (2017), and the coedited collections Brahms in the Home and the Concert Hall (2014), Brahms in Context (2019), Musical Salon Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century (2019) and German Song Onstage (2020), and she has published various chapters and essays in edited collections. Her work has been funded by the British Academy, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the American Musicological S... Read Full Biography
Kate Kennedy
Kate Kennedy
Speaker
Dr Kate Kennedy has held a Research Fellowship at Girton College, Cambridge, a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at the English Faculty, Cambridge, and is the Weinrebe Research Fellow in Life-writing at Wolfson College, Oxford. She lectures in both music and English, and specialises in interdisciplinary biography. Her biography Dweller in Shadows: Ivor Gurney, poet, composer will be published by Oxford University Press in 2016, and she is currently working on a triple biography of Rupert Brooke and composers FS Kelly and William Denis Br... Read Full BiographyThis event is part of a series:
Spring Song 2022
We're thrilled to announce our spring festival, Spring Song, which sees us back fully in person at the Holywell Music Room and in the superb new concert hall at Trinity College, with a four-day feast of song recitals, study events, auditions for our new and enhanced Young Artist Programme, and more. We cannot wait to see you there!