Chopin writes from Minorca about his being marooned in strangeness… Mozart complains to his father and rages at his treatment at the hands of a Viennese nobleman… Schubert quotes Gretchen’s song at the spinning wheel in his deep depression at his loneliness and lack of success… J. S. Bach sends a formal epistle to the Leipzig authorities insisting his proper fees… The dying Debussy writes from the hospital and mingles his personal despair with references to the war going on Europe… Puccini’s desi…re to escape the confines of Paris and Schumann’s loving letter to his fiancee Clara…
Guitarist Francesco Teopini and soprano Jasmine Law bring you an evening of works for voice and guitar, featuring composers from the 20th century. A highlight on the programme is a local premiere of Dominick Argento’s song cycle Letters from Composers (1968).
“I’m more interested in character than I am in story,” the Pulitzer Prize winner Argento once told a journalist. In these fascinating character-studies of the personalities who wrote them, the composer responds to epistolary prose from seven different composers, never intended to be set to music.
Other pieces to be performed include guitar solos by Jaques Ibert and Francis Poulenc, and another local premiere of the evening – the delightfully clever Folksong Arrangements vol. 6 (English Folksongs, 1961) by Benjamin Britten.
This concert features the human voice along with the guitar in an intimate and cozy recital setting. Each of the selected pieces are unique musical pastiches in their own right. A sophisticated evening not to be missed!Tickets: https://rapsovoce.ticketbud.com/letters-from-composers