Music on Thursdays
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Thursday 6th June 2024
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Sophie Patterson
mezzo-soprano
Siyuan Xu
piano
Programme
Felix Penna-Hurst (b 2004)
La Nuit Constellée [17:30]
1 Les Saltimbanques Acrobats
2 Clotilde
3 Crépuscule Dusk
4 L'Adieu The Farewell
5 Moondrops
Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918)
born Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki, in Rome
Reading from
Calligrammes: Poèmes de la Paix et de la Guerre 1913-16
Poems of Peace and War 1913-16
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Cœur Couronne et Miroir
Heart Crown and Mirror Mon Cœur pareil
à une Flamme Renversée My heart, like an upside-down flame Les Rois qui meurent
Tour à Tour Renaissent au Cœur des Poètes Kings who die in their turn Are born again in the hearts of poets Dans ce Miroir je suis en clos
vivant et vrai comme on imagine les Anges et non comme sont les Reflets In this mirror I am enclosed alive and true as one imagines the Angels and not like Reflections Poems of Peace and War 1913-16 |
. . . and they make more sense written as Calligrammes !
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (1899-1963)
words: Guillaume Apollinaire
Banalités (1940) [11:30]
1 Chanson d’Orkenise (an imaginary place)
2 Hôtel
3 Fagnes de Wallonie Walloon Moss-hags (holes left from peat digging)
4 Voyage à Paris Trip to Paris
5 Sanglots Sobs
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
words and recipes: La Bonne Cuisine Française (1879)
Émile Dumont (1829-1887)
La Bonne Cuisine: Four Recipes for Voice & Piano (1947) [11:00]
1 Plum Pudding tone preciso e senza espressione rather grim
2 Queues de Boeuf Oxtails
3 Tavouk Guenksis Milk pudding with shredded chicken breast
4 Civet à Toute Vitesse Stew at Top Speed
from TIME Magazine Article Song Cycle
James Garner
1 March 3, 1923 [3:30]
Will Harmer (b2000)
2 Chattering Teeth [2:00]
courtesy of the Royal Academy of Music
Concert duration approx: 55+ minutes
Please donate to help fund these concerts at: cafdonate.cafonline.org/14455
words: Guillaume Apollinaire
Banalités (1940) [11:30]
1 Chanson d’Orkenise (an imaginary place)
2 Hôtel
3 Fagnes de Wallonie Walloon Moss-hags (holes left from peat digging)
4 Voyage à Paris Trip to Paris
5 Sanglots Sobs
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
words and recipes: La Bonne Cuisine Française (1879)
Émile Dumont (1829-1887)
La Bonne Cuisine: Four Recipes for Voice & Piano (1947) [11:00]
1 Plum Pudding tone preciso e senza espressione rather grim
2 Queues de Boeuf Oxtails
3 Tavouk Guenksis Milk pudding with shredded chicken breast
4 Civet à Toute Vitesse Stew at Top Speed
from TIME Magazine Article Song Cycle
James Garner
1 March 3, 1923 [3:30]
Will Harmer (b2000)
2 Chattering Teeth [2:00]
courtesy of the Royal Academy of Music
Concert duration approx: 55+ minutes
Please donate to help fund these concerts at: cafdonate.cafonline.org/14455
Sophie Patterson
Southern California native mezzo-soprano Sophie Patterson is currently studying at the Royal Academy of Music with Raymond Connell. She recently finished her studies in Paris at the École Normale Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot with world renowned baritone, Vladimir Chernov. The young mezzo graduated with a Bachelors in Music from the Herb Alpert School of Music of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).
She recently debuted her Sesto from Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito in Paris at Halle Pajol. Last summer, she made her Switzerland debut as Gertrud in Engelbert Humperdink's Hänsel und Gretel with Berlin Opera Academy as part of Opern Fest. In her time at UCLA, she sang roles in multiple opera premières, including Satan in Michael Klein's Akeidah, Mrs Krawczyk in Janice Hamer and Mary Azreal's Lost Childhood, and a Nun in Carla Lucero's Juana. Other recent roles she has sung include Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart), Anne in Virgil Thompson and Gertrude Stein's sufragette opera The Mother of Us All, and one of the six esprits in Cendrillon (Massenet).
In her last year in Paris, Ms Patterson was awarded Second Prize from the Cap Ferret Music Open Competition in France and the Special Prize from the Ise-Shima Art Committee International Singing Competition. In her last recital at UCLA, as part of the Chancellor's Residence at UCLA recital series, she debuted Ravel’s Song Cycle Shéhèrazade. In 2017 Ms Patterson sang Bernstein’s Songfest as a Mezzo-Soprano Soloist at UCLA. That same year, she also appeared as a Mezzo-Soprano soloist in Peter Golub’s The Gorey Songs.
Sophie has attended the summer programs Berlin Opera Academy, Teatro Nuovo, and The International Vocal Arts Academy of Payerbach. Sophie Patterson was an Apprentice Artist for the 2016-2017 season with The Verdi Chorus. She has participated in masterclasses led by Lisette Oropesa, Jennifer Larmore, Michelle DeYoung, Vladimir Chernov, and Will Crutchfield. Her non-music activities include practicing karate, salsa dancing, improvisation, cooking, and playwriting.
She recently debuted her Sesto from Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito in Paris at Halle Pajol. Last summer, she made her Switzerland debut as Gertrud in Engelbert Humperdink's Hänsel und Gretel with Berlin Opera Academy as part of Opern Fest. In her time at UCLA, she sang roles in multiple opera premières, including Satan in Michael Klein's Akeidah, Mrs Krawczyk in Janice Hamer and Mary Azreal's Lost Childhood, and a Nun in Carla Lucero's Juana. Other recent roles she has sung include Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart), Anne in Virgil Thompson and Gertrude Stein's sufragette opera The Mother of Us All, and one of the six esprits in Cendrillon (Massenet).
In her last year in Paris, Ms Patterson was awarded Second Prize from the Cap Ferret Music Open Competition in France and the Special Prize from the Ise-Shima Art Committee International Singing Competition. In her last recital at UCLA, as part of the Chancellor's Residence at UCLA recital series, she debuted Ravel’s Song Cycle Shéhèrazade. In 2017 Ms Patterson sang Bernstein’s Songfest as a Mezzo-Soprano Soloist at UCLA. That same year, she also appeared as a Mezzo-Soprano soloist in Peter Golub’s The Gorey Songs.
Sophie has attended the summer programs Berlin Opera Academy, Teatro Nuovo, and The International Vocal Arts Academy of Payerbach. Sophie Patterson was an Apprentice Artist for the 2016-2017 season with The Verdi Chorus. She has participated in masterclasses led by Lisette Oropesa, Jennifer Larmore, Michelle DeYoung, Vladimir Chernov, and Will Crutchfield. Her non-music activities include practicing karate, salsa dancing, improvisation, cooking, and playwriting.
Sophie Patterson
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Siyuan Xu
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Siyuan Xu
Siyuan Xu is a classical pianist based in London. She was born in China in 1999 and began playing the piano at the age of four. Between 2008-2015 she studied with Prof Hua Guo at the Northwest Normal University, Music Department.
In 2021, she studied with renowned Irish concert pianist David Quigley at the University of Birmingham and graduated with a Piano performance degree with Merit. Since 2022, she has been studying with Prof Michael Dussek and Andrew West at the Royal Academy of Music.
As a solo pianist, Siyuan has been winning prizes and competitions since the age of seven, including the Final National Piano First Prize in China of KJC Asian International Art Festival, and the Third prize of Taiwan International Piano Elite Open Competition.
Siyuan is also a keen chamber musician. She regularly performs in duo with cellists, singers and wind ensembles. She is devoted to rediscovered, rarely heard and new works. With Canadian cellist Bruno Quezada, they premiered Manuel Ponce's cello sonata in the UK. With Ukraine clarinettist Dmytro Fonatiuk, they premiered piano works by the Ukrainian composers Yevhen Stankovych and Rostyslav Demchyshyn in the UK.
Siyuan’s recent notable performances include two solo classical recitals in Birmingham and many collaborative recitals in London with outstanding musicians in and outside the academy. These include the Student Creative Festival at the Royal Academy of Music, Barnes Music Festival in 2023, a solo piano recital at St Stephen Walbrook, a trio concert in Southwark Cathedral, solo piano at the Château de Voltaire and an Art song duo with Diara Mykolenko at Fort L'Écluse in France's Rhone valley.
In 2021, she studied with renowned Irish concert pianist David Quigley at the University of Birmingham and graduated with a Piano performance degree with Merit. Since 2022, she has been studying with Prof Michael Dussek and Andrew West at the Royal Academy of Music.
As a solo pianist, Siyuan has been winning prizes and competitions since the age of seven, including the Final National Piano First Prize in China of KJC Asian International Art Festival, and the Third prize of Taiwan International Piano Elite Open Competition.
Siyuan is also a keen chamber musician. She regularly performs in duo with cellists, singers and wind ensembles. She is devoted to rediscovered, rarely heard and new works. With Canadian cellist Bruno Quezada, they premiered Manuel Ponce's cello sonata in the UK. With Ukraine clarinettist Dmytro Fonatiuk, they premiered piano works by the Ukrainian composers Yevhen Stankovych and Rostyslav Demchyshyn in the UK.
Siyuan’s recent notable performances include two solo classical recitals in Birmingham and many collaborative recitals in London with outstanding musicians in and outside the academy. These include the Student Creative Festival at the Royal Academy of Music, Barnes Music Festival in 2023, a solo piano recital at St Stephen Walbrook, a trio concert in Southwark Cathedral, solo piano at the Château de Voltaire and an Art song duo with Diara Mykolenko at Fort L'Écluse in France's Rhone valley.
Recordings of the works in today's concert
Felix Penna-Hurst (b 2004)
La Nuit Constellée [17:30]
1 Les Saltimbanques Acrobats
2 Clotilde
3 Crépuscule Dusk
4 L'Adieu The Farewell
5 Moondrops
This song cycle by young RAM composer Felix Penna-Hurst was completed just a couple of weeks ago and so no recording has yet been produced.
Come along to the concert to hear a brand new work by this winner of The Young Adjudicators' Award at the Commonwealth International Composition Award 2022.
La Nuit Constellée [17:30]
1 Les Saltimbanques Acrobats
2 Clotilde
3 Crépuscule Dusk
4 L'Adieu The Farewell
5 Moondrops
This song cycle by young RAM composer Felix Penna-Hurst was completed just a couple of weeks ago and so no recording has yet been produced.
Come along to the concert to hear a brand new work by this winner of The Young Adjudicators' Award at the Commonwealth International Composition Award 2022.
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (1899-1963)
words: Guillaume Apollinaire
Banalités (1940) [11:00]
1 Chanson d’Orkenise (an imaginary place)
2 Hôtel
3 Fagnes de Wallonie Walloon Moss-hags (holes left from peat digging)
4 Voyage à Paris Trip to Paris
5 Sanglots Sobs
First we have the complete song cycle, with soprano Véronique Gens, accompanied by Roger Vignoles. Then we hear just the song Hôtel, sung by Sophie Patterson.
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Joseph Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Libretto: Franc-Nohain (pseudonym of Maurice Etienne Legrand 1872-34)
from the opera L'heure espagnole M52 The Spanish Hour (1907-11)
Concepción's Aria [3:30]
This recording comes from the Royal Overseas League, London, with Lotte Betts-Dean, and a rather familiar pianist - Thomas "Queue de cheval" Ang.
(Due to time constraints, this item will not be performed in the live concert.)
James Garner (b1992)
words by Shakespeare
from the opera Much Ado about Nothing
Aria of Beatrice [2:00]
Here is another recently composed song for which we have found no recording.
To give you a feel for James Garner's style, here is another song from his Much Ado About Nothing, Sigh No More Ladies, with Elisabeth Boudreault, soprano and Christopher Gaudreault, piano.
(Due to time constraints, this item will not be performed in the live concert.)
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
words and recipes: La Bonne Cuisine Française (1879)
Émile Dumont (1829-1887)
La Bonne Cuisine: Four Recipes for Voice & Piano (1947) [11:00]
1 Plum Pudding tone preciso e senza espressione rather grim
2 Queues de Boeuf Oxtails
3 Tavouk Guenksis Milk pudding with shredded chicken breat
4 Civet à Toute Vitesse Stew at Top Speed
Pauline Feracci sings and prepares these recipes in her recording with Arnaud Tibère-Inglesse, in the Théâtre "Le Sillon" at the Festival Musiques et Passions Clermont l'Hérault, France.
TIME Magazine Songs Cycle
James Garner 1 March 3, 1923 [3:30]
Will Harmer (b2000) 2 Chattering Teeth [2:00]
On 3rd March 1923 the very first edition of TIME Magazine was published. How that has inspired Garner and Harmer to write these songs we shall have to wait for the concert to find out!
It is so exciting to have new and recent material in one of our concerts but, as you see, it does rather undermine our plan to bring you a flavour of the concert through the recordings we place here!
We hope you have enjoyed the songs we have been able to bring you.
Previous concert
30 May 2024 - Basil Alter, violin, from Royal Academy of Music - click here
Next concert
13 June 2024 - Young Musical Talent of Leatherhead Trinity Primary School click here
