Thursday 26 February 2026, 1pm
Kitty Whately mezzo-soprano
William Vann piano
Love, loss and the depths of the sea are explored in this exquisite programme of British songs.
The Music
Ralph Vaughan Williams’ long and varied career is beautifully represented by these songs, dating from 1908 until the last year of his life, 50 years later. The lyrical, sometimes melancholy poetry of two women are among the inspirations: his niece Fredegond Shove, and his second wife Ursula.
Elizabeth Maconchy’s songs range from the delicate to the pastoral to the deeply disconcerting, especially in the enigmatic ‘The Woodspurge’. Rebecca Clarke’s famous ‘The Sealman’, meanwhile, is downright terrifying. It keeps company with three earlier songs, evocative settings of translations from Chinese poetry. Grace Williams, in her comfort zone of music about the sea, sets the tragic poem of Walter Scott’s ‘Rosabelle’.
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Four Poems by Fredegond Shove; The Sky Above the Roof; Four Last Songs
Elizabeth Maconchy
In Fountain Court; Ophelia’s Song; The Woodspurge
Rebecca Clarke
Return of Spring; Colour of Life; Tears; The Seal Man
Grace Williams
Rosabelle from ‘The Billows of the Sea’
The concert will finish at approximately 2.05pm.