Music at Lunchtime
Wednesday 8 May 2024, 1.30pm
All Saints’ Church
Rosie Johnson soprano
Dozie Osuji & Elsa Marsh piano
Cason Kang & Anne Bolt piano
Five Shakespeare Songs, op. 23
Roger Quilter
i. Fear No More the Heat O’ the Sun (1877-1953)
ii. Under the Greenwood Tree
iii. It Was a Lover and his Lass
iv. Take, O Take Those Lips Away
v. Hey, Ho, the Wind and the Rain
Mazurka in F# minor, op. 6 no. 1
Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Lebhaft (Bilder aus Osten, op. 66 no. 5) Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
There will be a retiring collection in aid of Church funds. Please take your programme with you at the end of the recital.
Forthcoming Music at Lunchtime recitals
Wednesday 15 May, 1.30pm Harriet Devenyi violin Music by Dvořák, Elgar, Handel & Massenet
Forthcoming Music in Chapel concerts
Tickets from wegottickets.com or 01572 758820
Thursday 16 May, 7.30pm Professional Music in the Chapel Dan Milverton saxophone & Victoria Bonham piano
The British composer Roger Quilter was born in 1877 and is most well known for his English art songs, which he would typically set to passages from Shakespeare – in this case all of the songs from this set are also sung in Shakespeare’s plays. He studied in Germany as part of the Frankfurt Group, often writing song cycles for specific voices, before his death in 1953. It is likely that this song cycle was written for Gervase Elwes, a tenor, who tragically died in 1921, the same year as these songs were written.
The first piece, Fear No More the Heat O’ the Sun, is taken from the lesserknown play ‘Cymbeline’, while the sons of the eponymous king mourn the deaths of two friends – an unusual theme for the start of a song cycle. The songs then discuss love in three different ways – a fanfare-style piece in Under the Greenwood Tree and a dance in It Was a Lover and his Lass, the texts both taken from ‘As You Like It’, and a more regretful, melancholic piece Take, O Take Those Lips Away with lyrics from ‘Measure for Measure’ The final piece Hey, Ho, the Wind and the Rain is my favourite and the lyrics, neatly summarising life, are taken from ‘Twelfth Night’. The mischevious fun of the piece is underwritten with the bittersweet reality of the brevity and hardships of life.
Rosie JohnsonRosie (Form 6) studies singing with Julie Moffat. Elsa (Form 4) and Dozie (Form 6) both study with Head of Piano, Anne Bolt.