back to listing

Friday 3 November 7.30 pm
Songs of Sorabji and Hinton

Conway Hall  £10/£6 concessions

Sarah Leonard, soprano; Stephen Gutman, piano

Programme

Sorabji: Trois Poemes "Correspondances" (Baudelaire); "Crepuscule du Soir Mystique" (Verlaine); "Pantomime" (Verlaine)
Alastair Hinton: Five Songs of Tagore (op.7)
Sorabji: Trois Fetes Galantes (Verlaine) "L'Allee"; "a la Promenade"; "Dans la Grotte"

Interval

Sorabji: Trois Chants (WP); "le Faune" (Verlaine); "les Chats" (Baudelaire); "la Derniere Fete Galante" (Verlaine)
Alistair Hinton: Six Songs For high soprano and piano (op.40) (WP) (festival commission); The Oven Bird (Robert Frost); Bright is the Ring (Robert Louis Stevenson); To Robert Browning (Walter Savage Landor); Exclusion (Emily Dickinson); A Last Word (Ernest Dowson); Envoi (Ezra Pound, after Edmund Waller)
Sorabji: L'Heure Exquise (Verlaine); Apparition (Mallarme)*; Hymn a Aphrodite (Tailhade)*

* World premiere

Composers

Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (1892-1988) is one of the most remarkable figures in our century's music. Born in England, his father a Zoroastrian (Parsi) engineer and his mother apparently a Spanish-Sicilian soprano, his education, both musical and general, was mainly private, this all destined Sorabji to be something of an outsider to the British musical establishment but failed to discourage an astonishingly productive career as a composer, critic and essayist spanning some seventy years. Best known for his vast contribution to keyboard literature, his works include three vast organ symphonies and more than sixty piano pieces of all shapes and sizes whose durations range from a few seconds to many hours. Almost all his music was written at breakneck pace straight into final draft; the resulting manuscripts are generally legible but impractical as performance documents. Sixteen were published during his lifetime, however and more than thirty new editions have since appeared.
© Alastair Hinton

Alistair Hinton was born in Scotland. He began composing at the age of 11 and continued his musical studies privately until his early work attracted the interest of Benjamin Britten, with whose advice and help he attended Royal College of Music, London, for lessons with Humphrey Searle and Stephen Savage. His development as a composer was later encouraged by the music, literature and friendship of the composer Sorabji, which exposed him to numerous crucial influences that were to enhance his love of the piano and preoccupation with the challenge of writing for it. His role in fostering international interest in Sorabji's work led to his founding The Sorabji Archive, based in Bath, England, a research centre for performers and scholars which issues copies of his scores and writings to the public. He has published articles and reviews in various journals, acted as executive producer of recordings and contributed to broadcasts in several countries. He contributed two chapters to Sorabji: A Critical Celebration, ed. Paul Rapoport, for which he also provided substantial research material.

Performers

Sarah Leonard is one of this countries most versatile sopranos. She has a wide repertoire, with a particular interest in 20th century music. Operas include Dr. Faustus, Giaccomo Manzoni, La Scala Milan, To Be Sung, Pascal Dusapin, Theatre des Amandiers, Paris, Dirty Tricks, Paul Barker, London, Das Madchen mit den Schwefelholzern, Helmut Lachenmann,and Al Gran sole carico †amore, Luigi Nono, both at Hamburg Opera, and Angel Magick, John Harle, BBC Promenade concerts. Sarah works with many European chamber ensembles Ensembles and regularly gives song recitals. She is particularly interested in English, American and German song. Sarah broadcasts extensively in the UK and Europe, and has made over 30 CDs. These include When the Heart is Young, a recital of songs by Franz Lehar, A 6 CD series called A Century of English Song with SOMM Recordings and Neither by Morton Feldman, Hat Hut Records. Future releases include Alistair Hinton's String Quintet op13 with soprano, on Altarus Records.

Stephen Gutman's musicianship and his advocacy of the music of our time have been widely admired. He recently commissioned two innovative collections of new work which make specific connections with the Debussy Etudes and with Rameau's minuet Le Lardon. A double CD including the Rameau project and Rameau's five Suites (played on the piano) will be released on the Metronome label. Gutman has performed and broadcast all over the world. Engagements this year have included performances in Japan, and the broadcast of music by Birtwistle for France Musique.