The Elgar Festival

This song-recital bridges the Atlantic with an inspired blend of British, American, and Anglo-American composers. It begins with a selection of some of Elgar's most beloved songs, followed by a rare-performance of Lennox Berkeley's exquisite Counting the Beats. The programme commemorates the 50th anniversary of the death of Sir Arthur Bliss, presenting songs that variously sample the cheeky, romantic, and introspective sides of his personality. The 70th birthday of local-composer Ian Venables is also marked with a performance of one of his early song-cycles. The recital concludes with Eric McElroy's own song-cycle of war-poems by Robert Graves, A Dead Man's Embers, which has been hailed by Musical Opinion as a 'masterpiece' of contemporary song.

April Fredrick, soprano              

Eric McElroy, piano

Elgar: Speak, Music, from Op. 41

Elgar: Rondel, from Op. 16

Elgar: Pleading, from Op. 48

Venables: Love's Voice, Op. 22

Arthur Bliss: Simples

Arthur Bliss: The Hare

Arthur Bliss: The Fallow Deer at the Lonely House

L. Berkeley: Counting the Beats

Eric McElroy: A Dead Man's Embers