
date: March 4, 2102
The concert was presented as part of a week’s residency at the University of Alberta, Department of Music, in Convocation Hall. Subtitled “An English idyll, in four days and a prologue”, the concert depicted the relationships of a group of characters over one weekend in a country house. Most of the personalities were taken from Aldous Huxley’s novel Crome Yellow(1921), with a few from P.G.Wodehouse’s Blandings Castle (1935). (Huxley’s work is a thinly disguised description of life at Lady Ottoline Morrell’s Garsington Manor.) The songs and piano-duets, mostly by Ireland, Gurney, Warlock and Britten, followed a time line from Friday afternoon through to Monday morning. Extracts from the novels provided the dialogue delivered by the five performers.
SONG | ARTIST | COMPOSER | POET |
---|---|---|---|
Fanfare (Façade) | Ralls, Stephen / Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Walton, Sir William, arr. Lambert, Constant | n/a |
The Journey | Wilkinson, Mark, baritone; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Ireland, John | Blake, Ernest |
Gavotte | Turnbull, Elizabeth, mezzo; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Howells, Herbert | Newbolt, Sir Henry |
Love’s Philosophy | Abele, Catherine, soprano; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Delius, Frederick | Shelley, Percy Bysshe |
An Aside (Five 16th Century Poems) | Wilkinson, Mark, baritone; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Ireland, John | anon. |
Sleep | Abele, Catherine, soprano; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Gurney, Ivor | Fletcher, John |
Nine of the clock | Abele, Catherine, soprano; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Gurney, Ivor | Doyle, John |
It was a lover and his lass (Let us garlands bring) | Turnbull, Elizabeth, mezzo; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Finzi, Gerald | Shakespeare, William |
The Trellis | Wilkinson, Mark, baritone; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Ireland, John | Huxley, Aldous |
Tordion (Capriol Suite) | Ralls, Stephen / Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Warlock, Peter | n/a |
The Contented Lover | Abele, Catherine, soprano; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Warlock, Peter | Mabbe, James |
Sleep | Turnbull, Elizabeth, mezzo; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Warlock, Peter | Fletcher, John |
A Thanksgiving (Five 16th Century Poems) | Wilkinson, Mark, baritone; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Ireland, John | Cornysh, William ? |
Earth’s Call (A Sylvan Rhapsody) | Turnbull, Elizabeth, mezzo; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Ireland, John | Munro, Harold |
Old Sir Faulk (Façade) | Abele, Catherine, soprano; Ralls, Stephen / Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Walton, Sir William, arr. Lambert, Constant | Sitwell, Dame Edith |
Polka (Façade) | Ralls, Stephen / Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Walton, Sir William, arr. Lambert, Constant | n/a |
Tell me the truth about love (Cabaret Songs) | Wilkinson, Mark, baritone; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Britten, Benjamin | Auden, Wystan Hugh |
Underneath the abject willow (Two Ballads) | Abele, Catherine, soprano; Turnbull, Elizabeth, mezzo; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Britten, Benjamin | Auden, Wystan Hugh |
Beethoven’s Binge (Two Cod-Pieces) | Ralls, Stephen / Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Warlock, Peter | n/a |
The Old Codger (Two Cod-Pieces) | Ralls, Stephen / Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Warlock, Peter | n/a |
So Perverse | Wilkinson, Mark, baritone; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Bridge, Frank | Bridges, Robert |
Nocturne, Op.11/4 (On This Island) | Abele, Catherine, soprano; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Britten, Benjamin | Auden, Wystan Hugh |
The Sweet Season (Five 16th Century Poems) | Wilkinson, Mark, baritone; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Ireland, John | Edwardes, Richard |
Love went a-riding | Turnbull, Elizabeth, mezzo; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Bridge, Frank | Coleridge, Mary |
Thank you so much, Mrs Lowsborough-Goodby – ENCORE | Abele, Catherine, soprano; Turnbull, Elizabeth, mezzo; Wilkinson, Mark, baritone; Ralls, Stephen / Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Porter, Cole | Porter, Cole |