Dame Sarah Connolly mezzo-soprano
Joseph Middleton piano

Tickets:
£22 (standard)
£10 (U30 Member / 18 and under)

A pre-concert talk with Errollyn Wallen will begin at 6.45pm.

Johannes Brahms
Ständchen
Da unten im Tale
Feldeinsamkeit
Die Mainacht
Von ewiger Liebe

Gustav Mahler
Rückert-Lieder
Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft
Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder
Liebst du um Schönheit
Um Mitternacht
Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen  

INTERVAL

Claude Debussy
Chansons de Bilitis
La flûte de Pan
La chevelure
Le tombeau des Naiades

Errollyn Wallen
Night Thoughts
(A Leeds Lieder commission* – world première of a new song cycle)

Kurt Weill
My Ship
Speak Low
Trouble Man
Je ne t’aime pas

The unrivalled Dame Sarah Connolly receives the highest plaudits wherever she sings. A prolific recording artist, she has a matchless international reputation as an interpreter of the iconic mezzo roles of Handel, Strauss and Wagner. Alongside her regular pianist, Joseph Middleton, she brings her fierce intellect and thrilling theatrical intensity to Mahler’s Rückert–Lieder. On performing them in New York’s Lincoln Centre, ‘The New York Times’ commented that Connolly and Middleton’s recital was “superlative… This was everything a recital should be.” Tonight’s programme also includes a nod to Sarah’s student days when she performed jazz in various bars and clubs. Taking inspiration from that side of Connolly’s artistry, Errollyn Wallen has written a cycle to display the soulful depth of the outstanding mezzo’s voice.

*Commissioned by Leeds Lieder for Dame Sarah Connolly and Joseph Middleton with the generous support of Peter Hirschmann, Martin Staniforth and the Vaughan Williams Foundation.