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SONGS OF LOVE AND FAREWELL
Saturday, 18 June 2005, Holywell Music Room, Oxford, 8.00 pm Kathryn Whitney, mezzo-soprano & Michael Brownlee-Walker, piano Kathryn Whitney
will be singing a special
'farewell' concert at the Holywell Music Room in Oxford on 18 June to
mark the end of her tenure as Wolfson Creative Arts Fellow in Music,
2002-2005. The concert promises to be a highlight of the Oxford
summer music calendar and ticket sales are already going well. The
concert offers something for everyone, and will be a delightful
night out for music lovers of all ages. Kathryn will be singing
some rousing Shakespeare settings, charming French love songs, jovial
Viennese Lieder, ironic English lullabies and an important world
premiere -- a wonderful way to spend an early summer evening.
WORLD PREMIERE 'Songs of love and fareweel' will feature the first public performance of a new work by composer John McCabe, CBE, who has been commissioned to write a special scena for Kathryn for the occasion. The commission is supported by Wolfson College, the Arts Council of England and the RVW Trust, and assistance for the first performance has also been received from the Oxford Faculty of Music and the Oxford City Council. HELOISE TO ABELARD John McCabe's new piece, 'Heloise to Abelard' is an exciting new work for mezzo-soprano and piano that explores the changing relationship between these two famous medieval lovers. The story of Heloise and Peter Abelard is surely one of the most compelling love stories of the past 1000 years. Irrevocably drawn to one another by a potent mixture of intellectual admiration and strong physical attraction, Heloise (1101-1164), niece of the Parisien Canon Fulbert, and Peter Abelard (10-79-1142), the famous 12th-century scholar and philosopher, has a lasting love affair that survived tragedy and a lifetime of separation. Abelard contrived to the be the tutor of the young Heloise, who was one of the most highly intelligent and and well-educated women of her time. The two fell deeply in love and enjoyed a passionate relationship until, through misunderstanding, Fulbert believed Heloise to have been abandoned and ordered Abelard attacked and castrated. The lovers (by now husband and wife, and with a son, Astrolabe) separated -- Heloise to a convent and Abelard to found a monastery (the Paraclete), later given to Heloise's community. When a letter from Abelard recounting his love for Heloise fell into her hands, a correspondence began between the two in which they debated, among other things, the primacy of earthly love (Heloise) versus that of the love of God (Abelard). These letters offer a powerful account of lasting and consummate passion between equals -- husband and wife, father and mother, monk and nun, scholars -- who despite their love were never the meet again. (At Abelard's request, they were buried side by side at the Paraclete, although their bodies were later moved and now lie together in a single tomb in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.) LOVE AND FAREWELL The remainder of the concert takes up the central themes of John McCabe's new piece: love and farewell. The concert will begin with a series of charming French love songs by Georges Bizet (Chants d'amour, Adieu de l'hostesse Arabe), which will be followed a set of songs from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn (Aus! Aus!, Heute marchieren wir, Scheiden und Meiden, Zur Strassburg auf der Schranz, Auf Wiedersehen). These songs will lead to the McCabe piece, Heloise to Abelard, which will be followed by the interval. The second half will begin with Benjamin Britten's ironic Charm of Lullabies, a song cycle exploring the tender -- and at times not so tender -- love between a mother and her child. We will conclude the concert with a rousing set of Shakespeare settings by Erich Korngold. The first two are taken from his Op. 38 ('Old English Song' [about the battle of Cadiz] and 'My mistress' eyes'). The concert will conclude with a performance of songs from Erich Korngold's song cycle Songs of the Clown Op.28, which is a setting of the songs from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (Come Away Death, O Mistress Mine, Adieu, Good Man Devil, Hey, Robin!). The concert will be an excellent opportunity for Oxford concert-goers to hear a high-profile premiere of an important new work, sung by this exciting young singer with a special connection to Oxford. TICKETS Tickets are £10 (£9 regular concessions/£5 students) and are available now through the Oxford Playhouse (Oxford 305305) or online at TicketsOxford.com
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