LiedFest Berlin Oxford - Special Concert
30I05I2025
Liederabend: Merry Evenings in our House – A Celebration of James Joyce
Beginn 19:30 Uhr
Einlass 18:30 Uhr
A celebration of James Joyce
Philip Headlam, direction and piano
Arno Waschk, piano
Anna Huntley, mezzo-soprano
Joshua Owen Mills, tenor
Dietrich Henschel, baritone
James Joyce (1882- 1941), one of the greatest modernist writers in Europe, was also a fine singer, an avid enthusiast of music and friend to musicians and composers. He gathered friends and family for ‘merry evenings in our house’ to sing, dance and play the music he loved – for the drama, the entertainment and the fun.
A tour of the life of James Joyce through the music of his life: from Renaissance songs by Dowland and Purcell, popular French boulevard songs, English Music Hall and Gilbert & Sullivan to operetta, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini and the lively, danceable folksongs and traditional melodies of Ireland and Italy.
Included is a performance of The Joyce Book: a song cycle on his collection Pomes Penyeach with each poem set by a different composer — from England, Ireland, France, the United States and Italy. Undeservngly fading from sight after 1932, this will be the German premiere.
Program
Part one
The Joyce Book (1932)
13 songs on poems from POMES PENYEACH
E.J. Moeran Tilly
Arnold Bax Watching the Needleboats at San Sabba
Albert Roussel A Flower given to my Daughter
Herbert Hughes She Weeps over Rahoon
John Ireland Tutto è Sciolto
Roger Sessions On the Beach at Fontana
Arthur Bliss Simples
Herbert Howells Flood
George Antheil Nightpiece
Edgardo Carducci Alone
Eugene Goossens A Memory of the Players in a Mirror at Midnight
C.W. Orr Bahnhofstrasse
Bernard Van Dieren A Prayer
Part two
Joyce’s choice – Merry evenings in our house
Music by James Joyce, Gilbert & Sullivan, Michael W. Balfe, Friedrich v. Flotow, Richard Wagner, Giuseppe Verdi, John Dowland, Henry Purcell, Giovanni Stefani among others