Saturday 9 July | 7:45pm

Doors & bar 6:45pm | Concert 7:45pm, ends 9:00pm, no interval

Tickets £22 / £11

BOOK TICKETS : https://www.staplefordgranary.org.uk/whats-on/events/james-gilchrist-clare-wilkinson-anna-markland

 

The Dance Continued walking in our fathers’ footsteps through the landscape and through song

James Gilchrist, tenor | Clare Wilkinson, mezzo-soprano | Anna Markland, piano

 

And there I know that you may lie

Day long and watch the Cambridge sky…

…in Grantchester, in Grantchester!

 

The composer Stephen Wilkinson was born into a clerical family in Cambridgeshire in 1919. Despite being very varied (and spanning 80 years) his music has a particular language which is all its own while continuing the very finest English song tradition of Finzi, Holst and Britten. The Dance Continued is a personal journey through this musical landscape, lovingly curated for us by the composer’s daughter, mezzo-soprano Clare Wilkinson; and performed by her together with tenor James Gilchrist and pianist Anna Markland.

 

A deep and detailed reader of poetry, Stephen Wilkinson’s music grows out of a long, intense consideration of the text. His songs on poems by Rupert Brooke, Andrew Marvell and Louis MacNeice are presented here alongside some of Gerald Finzi’s most masterful settings of Thomas Hardy; the programme seasoned with intimate miniatures for solo piano by Wilkinson, Frank Bridge and Ivor Gurney. From its contemplation of first childhood steps, and radiating out from the local countryside this recital offers a view of life and landscape as seen from Cambridge and other English skies.

‘

‘highly persuasive English lyricism’

The Guardian

 

First Steps

Stephen Wilkinson – Little Bounce-a-bye for Clara

Benjamin Britten – O waly waly

Ivor Gurney – I will go with my father a-ploughing

Wilkinson – Berceuse à la musette – for Sebastian

 

The magic of Grantchester

Wilkinson – Grantchester

Wilkinson – Hand in hand

Wilkinson – Heaven

 

Frank Bridge – Rosemary

Gustav Holst – The Shoemaker

Gurney – Prelude set 2 no 1 in D flat

 

The Dance Continued

Gerald Finzi – Let me enjoy the earth

Finzi – At Middle-Field Gate in February

Finzi – In years defaced

Finzi – Transformations

Finzi – The Dance Continued

 

In a green shade 

Wilkinson – The Gate in the Wall

Wilkinson – The Garden

Wilkinson – Galiarda Glenton

Wilkinson – Ginko Biloba

Wilkinson – The Sunlight on the Garden

 

Clare Wilkinson makes music with groups of different shapes and sizes – lute, piano, consort of viols, vocal consort, baroque orchestra. Many new songs have been written for Clare, including a number by her late father. She has recorded very widely, several discs receiving Gramophone awards and nominations. She has recorded with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Andrew Parrott, Fretwork, Ensemble Plus Ultra. She is a member of I Fagiolini and performs in a duo with lutenist Jacob Heringman, exploring music old and new.

 

James Gilchrist began his working life as a doctor, turning to a full-time career in music in 1996. His musical interest was fired at a young age, singing first as a chorister in the choir of New College, Oxford, and later as a choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge. James’ extensive concert repertoire has seen him perform in major concert halls throughout the world with conductors including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Roger Norrington, Bernard Labadie, Harry Christophers, Harry Bicket, Masaaki Suzuki and Richard Hickox.

 

Anna Markland has had a varied and happy career not only as a pianist but also as a singer for the last forty years. As a student at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester she won the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 1982 and in 1984 she went to read music at Worcester College, Oxford, where she became a founder-member of I Fagiolini, thus beginning her parallel singing career as Anna Crookes. Anna also sings with Tenebrae, The Finzi Singers and Britten Sinfonia Voices.