Songs by Butterworth, Gurney, Ireland, Bliss, Vaughan Williams, Elgar

How does war affect creatives? What keeps them going, then and after? This Fragile Beauty, for soprano, piano, violin and narrator, explores the WWI wartime experience of composers Ivor Gurney, George Butterworth, Arthur Bliss, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, with settings of war-poets by Ireland and Elgar’s evocative A Voice in the Desert from the Belgian perspective.

A rich tapestry of longing and loss, it also features poems and letters by Gurney and others that emerged from their time in the trenches and the collective grief, processing and change that followed it.

Photo shows soprano, April Fredrick.

Find details of concerts taking place at this year’s Elgar Festival on Bachtrack.