Tait Awardee, Luke Styles, former Young Composer-in-Residence at Glyndebourne is joined by principals of Britten Sinfonia, and Tenor Mark Padmore, for the London première of a new song cycle set to poems by Australian poet, Les Murray, On Bunyah. The programme is crowned by Vaughan Williams’s On Wenlock Edge, which depicts rural life at a time when the First World War was drawing near.
Luke Styles (b.1982)
New work, On Bunyah (London première) [1]
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
On Wenlock Edge
[1] Co-commissioned by Britten Sinfonia with the support of donors to the Musically Gifted campaign, and by Wigmore Hall with the support of André Hoffmann, president of the Fondation Hoffmann, a Swiss grant-making foundation
“This new song cycle for tenor Mark Padmore (and the Britten Sinfonia in a chamber formation of string quartet and piano) set’s a series of 10 poems by Australian poet Les Murray, from his most recent collection, On Bunyah.
The cycle charts a loose narrative and progression of themes, where the tenor can be identified as a ‘poet farmer’ character. This central figure gives voice to many aspects of Australia (the bush, land, kangaroos, fire, death, machinery and the 20/21st Century) without sentimentality. The distinctive Australian flavour of this collection of poems embraces the similar experiences and challenges of other rural communities with the ‘poet farmer’ functioning as both a rural and modern day ‘every-man’.” Luke Styles
Britten Sinfonia
Jacqueline Shave, violin
Miranda Dale, violin
Clare Finnimore, viola
Caroline Dearnley, cello
Huw Watkins, piano
Mark Padmore, tenor
Wigmore Hall, 21st of November 2018 at 1pm
Book for the concert here
Book for the free pre-concert talk by Luke Styles here
A recording of a live performance of Luke Styles’s, How they Creep
from the 2016 Tait Winter Prom at St John’s Smith Square.
Jessica Cottis – Conductor
Alexandra Hutton – Soprano
Ashlyn Tymms – Mezzo Soprano
Tait Chamber Orchestra
