15:00 & 19.30 Saturday 2 September 2017
Wilton's Music Hall
John Luther Adams: songbirdsongs (excerpts)
Olivier Messiaen: Le merle noir
Rebecca Saunders: Molly's Song 3
Peter Maxwell Davies: Eight Songs for a Mad King
Jennifer France soprano
Marcus Farnsworth baritone
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
Sian Edwards conductor
Olivia Fuchs stage director
Dating from the mid-19th century, Wilton's is the world's oldest surviving music hall. With its tumbledown beauty and colourful history, it's the perfect space for a staged performance of Peter Maxwell Davies's Eight Songs for a Mad King - a dramatic monologue exploring the crazed fantasies and crumbling visions of George III.
The fluttering and chattering of the king's pet bullfinches which run through the work find an echo in bird-inspired pieces by Messiaen and Handel, as well as Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer John Luther Adams.
Sian Edwards conducts the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, with exciting young British soloists Jennifer France and Marcus Farnsworth.
Wilton's Music Hall
John Luther Adams: songbirdsongs (excerpts)
Olivier Messiaen: Le merle noir
Rebecca Saunders: Molly's Song 3
Peter Maxwell Davies: Eight Songs for a Mad King
Jennifer France soprano
Marcus Farnsworth baritone
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
Sian Edwards conductor
Olivia Fuchs stage director
Dating from the mid-19th century, Wilton's is the world's oldest surviving music hall. With its tumbledown beauty and colourful history, it's the perfect space for a staged performance of Peter Maxwell Davies's Eight Songs for a Mad King - a dramatic monologue exploring the crazed fantasies and crumbling visions of George III.
The fluttering and chattering of the king's pet bullfinches which run through the work find an echo in bird-inspired pieces by Messiaen and Handel, as well as Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer John Luther Adams.
Sian Edwards conducts the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, with exciting young British soloists Jennifer France and Marcus Farnsworth.
Comment