Wigmore Hall presents

Louise Alder performs songs by women

A program of songs by women delivered by an exceptional soprano and her regular pianist partner, including a selection from the 1914 collection of Francis Jammes settings by Lili Boulanger, and Libby Larsen’s 2000 cycle setting final letters or gallows speeches by five of Henry VIII’s six wives.

Louise Alder, soprano

Louise won best Young Singer at the Crictics’ Circle Music Awards 2019 and International Opera Awards 2017 and represented England in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition 2017, winning the third round and the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize.

Louise is a passionate recitalist and has performed in venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Graz Musikverein, Oper Frankfurt, Juan March Foundation, Life Victoria Barcelona, Purcell Room and Queen Elizabeth Hall (Southbank Centre), Cadogan Hall, Holywell Music Room Oxford and Queen’s Hall Edinburgh with pianists Gary Matthewman, Joseph Middleton, James Baillieu and Roger Vignoles.

Louise was born in London into a family of musicians and graduated with First Class Honours from the University of Edinburgh in 2010 where she studied singing with Patricia MacMahon. The same year she joined the Royal College of Music, graduating in 2013 from the International Opera School as the inaugural Kiri te Kanawa scholar. She continues to study with Dinah Harris.

Joseph Middleton, piano

Pianist Joseph Middleton specializes in the art of song accompaniment and chamber music and has been highly acclaimed in this field. Described in Opera Magazine as ‘the rightful heir to legendary accompanist Gerald Moore’, by BBC Music Magazine as ‘one of the brightest stars in the world of song and Lieder’, he has also been labeled ‘the cream of the new generation’ by The Times. He is Director of Leeds Lieder, Musician in Residence at Pembroke College, Cambridge and a Fellow of his alma mater, the Royal Academy of Music, where he is also a Professor. He was the first accompanist to win the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist Award.

Joseph is a frequent guest at major music centres including London’s Wigmore Hall (where he has been a featured artist), Royal Opera House and Royal Festival Hall, New York’s Alice Tully Hall and Park Avenue Armory, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Berlin BoulezSaal, Kölner Philharmonie, Konzerthaus and Musikverein Vienna, Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Muziekgebiouw, Zürich Tonhalle, Strasbourg, Frankfurt, Lille and Gothenburg Opera Houses, Baden-Baden, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Musée d’Orsay Paris, Oji Hall Tokyo and Festivals in Aix-en-Provence, Aldeburgh, Barcelona, Schloss Elmau, Edinburgh, Munich, Ravinia, San Francisco, Schubertiade Hohenems and Schwarzenberg, deSingel, Soeul, Stuttgart, Toronto and Vancouver. He made his BBC Proms debut in 2016 alongside Iestyn Davies and Carolyn Sampson and returned in 2018 alongside Dame Sarah Connolly where they premiered recently discovered songs by Benjamin Britten.

Program
Amy Beach (1867-1944)
3 Browning Songs Op. 44
Clara Schumann (1819-1896)
Er ist gekommen Op. 12 No. 1
Warum willst du and’re fragen Op. 12 No. 3
Liebst du um Schönheit Op. 12 No. 2
Lili Boulanger (1893-1918)
Clairières dans le ciel
Elle était descendue au bas de la prairie
Vous m’avez regardé avec toute votre âme
Au pied de mon lit
Nous nous aimerons
Si tout ceci n’est qu’un pauvre rêve
Alma Mahler (1879-1964)
Laue Sommernacht
Ich wandle unter Blumen
Licht in der Nacht
Libby Larsen (b.1950)
Try Me, Good King: Last Words of the Wives of Henry VIII

Monday, March 21, 2022
Live stream starts at 8:00am EST / 1:00pm GMT
The video will be available on demand for 30 days after the date of the broadcast.

To enjoy this concert visit: www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

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