SHIPSTON SONG 2024
CONCERT ONE
SPRING DIARY
7pm, Friday 20 September 2024
Sechs Lieder aus Jucunde, Op.23 - Clara Schumann
An die ferne Geliebte - Ludwig van Beethoven
Histoires Naturelles - Maurice Ravel
Plus works by John Ireland, Rhian Samuel, and Liza Lehmann
Swirling winds, acrobatic birds, whispering fields, silent flowers, eager streams and watchful stars are the essence of this programme full of the life of spring. We include Beethoven’s seminal song cycle ‘An die ferne Geliebte’ and Ravel’s farmyard character-sketches ‘Histoires Naturelles’, performed by British baritone and BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist James Atkinson and the first of our Rising Stars.
James Atkinson baritone
Ellen Pearson mezzo soprano (Shipston Song Rising Star)
Ian Tindale piano
CONCERT TWO
HOW DO I FIND YOU?
7pm, Saturday 21 September 2023
Lieder des Mirza-Schaffy - Ingeborg Bronsart
Four Last Songs - Ralph Vaughan Williams
Songs, Op.48 - Edvard Grieg
Plus works by Jonathan Dove, Caroline Shaw, Samuel Barber, and André Previn
John Donne wrestles with his faith in settings by Imogen Holst and Elizabeth Maconchy; lyric Scandinavians Grieg and Bronsart set texts looking to nature for inspiration; Ursula Vaughan Williams memorialises her husband, and powerful poetic and musical personalities from America add their searching voice to this quest for someone lost.
Bethany Horak-Hallett mezzo soprano
Eyra Norman soprano (Shipston Song Rising Star)
Ian Tindale piano
CONCERT THREE
L’INVITATION AU VOYAGE
3.30pm, Sunday 22 September 2024
Chansons de Bilitis - Claude Debussy
Folk songs from the British Isles - arr. Benjamin Britten
Songs - Errollyn Wallen
Plus works by Fauré, Hahn, and Viardot
An invitation to the voyage: this programme of songs travels to distant corners of worlds real and imagined, and also marks anniversaries of Gabriel Fauré and Reynaldo Hahn. Folk song arrangements from the British Isles by Benjamin Britten accompany a selection of definition-defying songs by the new Master of the King’s Music, Errollyn Wallen.
Ruby Hughes soprano
Redmond Sanders baritone (Shipston Song Rising Star)
Archie Bonham piano (Shipston Song Rising Star)
Ian Tindale piano
Carolyn Sampson is indisposed; this programme replaces the previously advertised concert.
THE VENUE
Set deep in rural Warwickshire on the edge of the Cotswolds, just 30 minutes by car from both Stratford-upon-Avon and Banbury, the private venue on the outskirts of Shipston-on-Stour provides an evocative and peaceful backdrop perfect for the intimate, small-scale performances of Shipston Song.
PAST CONCERTS
SHIPSTON SONG 2023
Nadia & Lili Boulanger | Rachmaninoff | Tippett Laurence Kilsby & Henna Mun
Fanny Mendelssohn | Stenhammar | Mahler Helen Charlston & Sam Hird
Finzi | Semple | Boyle Roderick Williams, Dafydd Jones & Francesca Lauri
SHIPSTON SONG 2022
Alberga | Brahms | Schumann | Rodney Bennett Julien Van Mellaerts & Annabel Kennedy
Lang | Brahms | Mendelssohn Harriet Burns & Jess Dandy
Vaughan Williams | Clarke | Hilder Miles James Gilchrist, Daniel Barrett, Ensemble Kopernikus
“We were taken on a wonderful journey through her life and work. Stunningly performed, as we knew it would be, but the music itself was a revelation to us.”
— audience member