New Paths Collective: A Charm of Lullabies

From Beverley to Bechstein Hall, exceptional artists from Yorkshire’s acclaimed New Paths Music Festival present a new series of rush-hour performances pairing song cycles by Britten (who died 50 years ago this year) with major instrumental sonatas.

This evening’s recital opens with Schubert’s lyrical masterpiece, the Arpeggione Sonata. The concert is centred around Britten’s cycle, A Charm of Lullabies. In it, Britten sets five diverse texts unified by the themes of night and sleep, including poems by Burns and Blake.

These themes are echoed in Grace Williams’ mystical Songs of Sleep – settings poetry of Fletcher, Campion and Tennyson. Finally in Geistliches Wiegenlied (Sacred Lullaby) the Virgin Mary asks the wind and trees of the forest to be still so her baby can sleep in peace: the luscious sonorities of viola and mezzo-soprano combine in Brahms’ much-loved Viola Songs.