To book tickets visit The Forge website.

Preceded at 3pm by a two hour “bring a song” session for amateur singers.

Performers

Kate Symonds-Joy (mezzo-soprano), Rupert Charlesworth (tenor), Gareth John (baritone), William Vann (piano)

Programme

“Children are, in short, visionaries.” Tonight’s recital explores de la Mare’s fascination with the concept of the unfettered imagination of child. His wide-ranging influence on English song composers includes a youthful Benjamin Britten and his Tit for tat, cycles by Lennox Berkeley and Arthur Bliss and Howells’s masterful Peacock Pie as well as songs by Armstrong Gibbs, Gurney (including an unpublished song, The ghost) and Robin Holloway.

Kate Symonds-Joy and Rupert Charlesworth, both critically acclaimed young singers, return to the festival after stunning performances in the 2011 season and are joined by Gareth John, currently studying on the opera course at the Royal Academy of Music.

Three Romantic Songs – Arthur Bliss (1891-1975)
The hare
Lovelocks
The buckle

Silver – Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960)
Ann’s cradle song
The beggar’s song
The mad prince

The scribe – Ivor Gurney (1890-1937)
An epitaph
The ghost
Bread and cherries

Tit for tat – Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
A song of enchantement
Autumn
Silver
Vigil
Tit for tat

INTERVAL

Five Songs – Lennox Berkeley (1903-1989)
The horseman
Mistletoe
Poor Henry
The song of the soldiers
Silver

King David – Herbert Howells (1892-1983)

Peacock Pie (first group) – Herbert Howells
Tired Tim
Alas, Alack!
Mrs. MacQueen
The dunce
Full moon
Miss T

Fare well – Robin Holloway (1943-)

Old Abram Brown – Benjamin Britten