Emerging Artists?: A Song Recital at St Mary's Church

Britten On This Island is a both critical and affectionate cycle about pre-war Britain in danger of corruption by the rise of European fascism. Debussy's Ariettes oublie´es sets the poetry of Verlaine from ‘Romances sans paroles’, written during a period when he spent a lot of time in London. Debussy was on his own journey to Rome when he composed this cycle.

The texts of Britten's Les Illuminations are by Rambeau, Verlaine’s lover. They were written around the same time as ‘Romances sans paroles’, and first published with a preface by Verlaine after the couple had parted ways. Returning through this cycle to Britten compositions, we now experience his music with the rare infusion of a foreign tongue as he sets these dream- sequence texts of the French poet.