Three concert programmes emerged from the album The Past & I: 100 Years of Thomas Hardy:
1) Full-length concert with interval: string quartet, guitar and mezzo-soprano
2) One hour recital: guitar and mezzo-soprano
3) One hour recital: string quartet and tenor or mezzo-soprano
Read about each below.
We are developing further programmes including one celebrating Schubert and Hardy whose centenaries are both in 2028 as well as a chamber opera about Hardy and his first wife, Emma. Please contact me for more details.
1) Full-length concert with interval: string quartet, guitar and mezzo-soprano
2) One hour recital: guitar and mezzo-soprano
3) One hour recital: string quartet and tenor or mezzo-soprano
Read about each below.
We are developing further programmes including one celebrating Schubert and Hardy whose centenaries are both in 2028 as well as a chamber opera about Hardy and his first wife, Emma. Please contact me for more details.
Programme 1
The Past & I: One Hundred Years of Thomas Hardy
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Instrumentation: String quartet, guitar and mezzo-soprano
Duration: Full concert with interval Previously performed by Ligeti Quartet, James Girling and Lotte Betts-Dean in Bristol, June 2024 (album launch). Programme: Gerald Finzi - The Too Short Time* Derek Holman - Midnight on the Great Western* Muriel Herbert - Faintheart in a Railway Train* Benjamin Britten - At the Railway Station, Upway* Gerald Finzi - Shortening Days* Arthur Keegan - Elegies for Emma* - - - - - Kerry Andrew - The Echo Elf Answers Imogen Holst - Weathers* Ivor Gurney - In the Black Winter Morning* Robin Milford - If It's Ever Spring Again* Arthur Keegan - String Quartet no. 1 'Elegies for Tom' *new arrangements by Arthur Keegan |
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This concert presents all of the music on the album 'The Past & I: 100 Years of Thomas Hardy' which reached number 5 in the Specialist Classical Music Chart, received excellent reviews in national press and was Presto Music's 'Recording of the Week'. Each half ends with sister song cycles 'Elegies for Emma' and 'Elegies for Tom'. The rest of the programme includes new arrangements of favourites of English song from across the 20th Century and a wonderfully haunting new song by Kerry Andrew.
Programme 2
Wessex Songs
Instrumentation: Guitar and mezzo-soprano
Duration: 60 minute recital
Programme:
Finzi - The Too Short Time*
Britten - At the Railway Station Upway, I Will Give My Love an Apple
Imogen Holst - Weathers*
Ivor Gurney - In the Black Winter Morning*
Robin Milford - If It's Ever Spring Again*
Arthur Keegan - Elegies for Emma
Dowland - Præludium, Come Again, Fantasie no. 1, Time Stands Still
Kerry Andrew - The Echo Elf Answers
Nick Drake - Way to Blue
*new arrangements by Arthur Keegan
Previously performed by James Girling and Lotte Betts-Dean in Wells, Sherborne, Cattistock and Stinsford in July/August 2024 (album launch tour).
This concert of guitar-accompanied song celebrates the long lineage of the form in English music. Famous Hardy songs from across the 20th Century arranged for guitar appear alongside early renaissance lute song (Dowland and Purcell) and 60s folk artist Nick Drake. Kerry Andrew's haunting new song and the dramatic song cycle Elegies for Emma provide atmospheric focus on Thomas Hardy's relationships with women and obsession with the passing of time.
Duration: 60 minute recital
Programme:
Finzi - The Too Short Time*
Britten - At the Railway Station Upway, I Will Give My Love an Apple
Imogen Holst - Weathers*
Ivor Gurney - In the Black Winter Morning*
Robin Milford - If It's Ever Spring Again*
Arthur Keegan - Elegies for Emma
Dowland - Præludium, Come Again, Fantasie no. 1, Time Stands Still
Kerry Andrew - The Echo Elf Answers
Nick Drake - Way to Blue
*new arrangements by Arthur Keegan
Previously performed by James Girling and Lotte Betts-Dean in Wells, Sherborne, Cattistock and Stinsford in July/August 2024 (album launch tour).
This concert of guitar-accompanied song celebrates the long lineage of the form in English music. Famous Hardy songs from across the 20th Century arranged for guitar appear alongside early renaissance lute song (Dowland and Purcell) and 60s folk artist Nick Drake. Kerry Andrew's haunting new song and the dramatic song cycle Elegies for Emma provide atmospheric focus on Thomas Hardy's relationships with women and obsession with the passing of time.
Programme 3
Elegies and Exhortations
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Instrumentation: String quartet and tenor or soprano
Duration: 60 minute recital Programme: Finzi - A Young Man's Exhortation* Arthur Keegan - String Quartet no. 1 'Elegies for Tom' *new arrangement for string quartet by Arthur Keegan This programme has yet to be performed |
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This concert sheds new light on Finzi's canonic Hardy song cycle A Young Man's Exhortation in a brand new arrangement for string quartet and voice. Hearing these songs with quartet accompaniment magnifies the drama; in her review for Presto Katherine Cooper said they are "akin to seeing colourised versions of old black-and-white photographs".
Arthur Keegan's String Quartet No. 1 'Elegies for Tom' closes the programme in a meditative air after the dramatic arc of Finzi's cycle. The music focusses in on Hardy's obsession with the passing of time (referring throughout to his poem 'Afterwards') and the relationship between Larkin and Hardy's poetry with sung interludes of Larkin's 'The Mower' between the instrumental movements.
Arthur Keegan's String Quartet No. 1 'Elegies for Tom' closes the programme in a meditative air after the dramatic arc of Finzi's cycle. The music focusses in on Hardy's obsession with the passing of time (referring throughout to his poem 'Afterwards') and the relationship between Larkin and Hardy's poetry with sung interludes of Larkin's 'The Mower' between the instrumental movements.