On Tour at the Edinburgh International Festival: Britten, Vaughan Williams & Elgar
Sir Antonio Pappano, Ian Bostridge & LSO Musicians
The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh
The Concert
Benjamin Britten Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo
Ralph Vaughan Williams On Wenlock Edge
Edward Elgar Piano Quintet
Sir Antonio Pappano conductor
Ian Bostridge tenor
LSO Musicians
Sung in Italian and English with English surtitles
Tickets
General On Sale 12pm Thursday 27 March
From £15.50
Expressive singing reveals the emotional depth of Benjamin Britten, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Edward Elgar.
The Programme
One of the most emotive singers working today, Ian Bostridge frequently performs music by Benjamin Britten, who wrote some of his most personal and heartfelt songs for the tenor voice.
Britten’s Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo are sung alongside Ralph Vaughan Williams’ elegiac On Wenlock Edge from 1909 which brings the poetry of AE Housman to life. Vaughan Williams wrote the cycle following lessons with the French composer Maurice Ravel. He remarked that his music thereafter had a ‘French polish’, which can definitely be heard in this shimmering piece.
Edward Elgar’s Piano Quintet (1918) is a piece of great contrasts: melancholic and vigorous, sustained and fragmented. Composed at the end of World War I, and one of Elgar’s final works, it is a powerful and very human response to the horrors of the previous years.
Supported by Susie Thomson
Header Image © Mark Allan
