A THOMAS HARDY SONGBOOK

Roderick Williams & Christopher Glynn

Crucible Playhouse, Sheffield
Thursday 4 November 2021, 7.15pm

Tickets: £20
£14 Disabled & Unemployed
£5 Students & Under 35s

Past Event
Home› What's on› A THOMAS HARDY SONGBOOK

A THOMAS HARDY SONGBOOK includes songs by Benjamin Britten, John Ireland and more
FINZI  Before and After Summer 

Featuring special guest Momentum artist, Gareth Brynmor John, as part of the Momentum: Our Future, Now initiative

Music in the Round’s Singer-in-Residence, Roderick Williams, is without a doubt one of the greatest performers of English song. In this concert, Roderick and Christopher will carry us through the wonderful Wessex world of Thomas Hardy’s poems set to music. From cider-drenched outbursts of joy in spring, to the falling yellow leaves of autumn, expect to be completely absorbed by an idyllic landscape with these outstanding musicians.  

Roderick and Christopher will also be joined by special guest Momentum artist, Gareth Brynmor John, who will be performing a few songs in this concert. The ‘Momentum: Our Future, Now’ initiative has been established in response to the pandemic, which sees leading soloists and conductors supporting younger colleagues by inviting them to share the stage at concerts and events taking place over the coming seasons.

Gareth first wowed Sheffield audiences back in December 2017, when he stood in for Roderick Williams who was unable to perform due to illness. Music in the Round is absolutely delighted to be welcoming them both back to Upper Chapel this autumn, as we do all that we can to support musicians in these challenging times.

“I can think of no better way to nurture the enormous musical talent that is facing such a threat in the face of this pandemic. I dearly hope that performers, promoters and audiences alike become used to the idea that, for the time being, opportunities to make music can be shared rather than competed for. We need to help each other now more than ever.” Roderick Williams

“Our greatest living baritone” The Daily Telegraph 

 

About the Artists

Roderick Williams

Roderick Williams is one of this country’s most sought after baritones and is constantly in demand on the concert platform and in recital, encompassing a repertoire from the baroque to world premieres.   In 2016 he won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Singer of the year award.

He is also a composer and has had works premiered at the Wigmore and Barbican Halls, the Purcell Room and live on national radio. Recent commissions include a major  work, World without End, for the Rias Kammerchor and BBC Singers as well as a commission to celebrate the centenary of the RAF.   He was Artistic Director of Leeds Lieder + in April 2016 and he is currently ‘singer-in-residence’ for Music in the Round in Sheffield, presenting concerts and leading on dynamic and innovative learning and participation projects that introduce amateur singers, young and old, to performing classical song repertoire.  He was awarded an OBE for services to music in June 2017.

Christopher Glynn

Chris is an award-winning pianist and accompanist, praised for his ‘breathtaking sensitivity’ (Gramophone), ‘irrepressible energy, wit and finesse’ (The Guardian), ‘a perfect fusion of voice and piano’ (BBC Music Magazine) and as ‘an inspired programmer’ (The Times). He is also Artistic Director of the Ryedale Festival, programming around sixty events each year in beautiful and historic venues across North Yorkshire.

Chris read music at New College, Oxford and studied piano with John Streets in France and Malcolm Martineau at the Royal Academy of Music, where he now teaches. He has made many CD recordings and is regularly heard on BBC Radio 3.

An interest in bringing classical song to a wider audience recently led Chris to commission Jeremy Sams to create new English translations of Schubert’s song cycles, now being recorded for Signum Records. Future plans include recitals with Roderick Williams and Ian Bostridge, further collaborations with Jeremy Sams (Schumann and Wolf songs), CD recordings with Nicky Spence, Kathryn Rudge, Claire Booth, Roderick Williams and The Sixteen, a project with Streetwise Opera, leading masterclasses for the Britten Pears School, a tour of Wolf’s Italian Songbook, and embarking on a project with Rachel Podger to perform and record Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas.