For many years we have been programming the music of Worcestershire-based composer Ian Venables. We certainly regard him as a friend of Luton Music and have enjoyed many of his exquisite chamber works and song cycles in a whole range of concerts. This recital will surely be just such another rewarding occasion. Alongside Ian’s works, the programme also salutes the elegance and sensitivity of Ivor Gurney; this feels particularly apposite as Ian is Chairman of the Ivor Gurney Society and one of the world’s leading experts on this sensitive poet and composer. Please join us for a beautiful evening of fine English song.
Richard Sisson (Chair of Luton Music)
PROGRAMME
Ian Venables – My Heart Makes Songs On Lonely Roads (Ivor Gurney)
Ivor Gurney – On The Downs (John Masefield)
Gerald Finzi – Only The Wanderer (Ivor Gurney)
Ivor Gurney – The Cloths of Heaven (W B Yeats)
Herbert Howells – The Chosen Tune
Ian Venables – Soft Rain (Ivor Gurney)
Herbert Howells – King David (Walter de la Mare)
Ivor Gurney – Thou Didst Delight My Eyes (Robert Bridges)
Charles Villiers Stanford – Tears (Walt Whitman)
Ian Venables – The Wind (Ivor Gurney)
INTERVAL
Ivor Gurney – In Flanders (F W Harvey)
Gerald Finzi – Channel Firing (Thomas Hardy)
Ralph Vaughan Williams – Whither Must I Wander? (R L Stevenson)
Ralph Vaughan Williams – Silent Noon (Dante Gabriel Rossetti)
Ivor Novello – We’ll Gather Lilacs
Edward Elgar – The Poet’s Life (Ellen Burroughs)
Ivor Gurney – An Epitaph (Walter de la Mare)
Herbert Howells – Ooce At Leisure from Sarum Sketches Op 6
Herbert Howells – The Restful Branches (W A Byrne)
Ian Venables – At Midnight (Harold Munro)
Ivor Gurney – By a Bierside (John Masefield)
Ian Venables – In Memoriam: Ivor Gurney (Leonard Clark)
ARTISTS
Rachel Roper (mezzo-soprano)
Claire Habbershaw (piano)
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