Heritage Week: Midday Music (Rory Lynch, Will Bosworth, & Elias García Hijano)

Five very different composers bring light to the night in this lunchtime programme which mixes the rich sound-colours of the French horn, the tenor voice and the piano.

Franz Strauss was a professional horn player, principal of the Bavarian Court Opera for more than 40 years. His mellow Nocturno, published in 1864, displays the classicism which he would pass on to his son, with elegant phrases and melodies which allow the horn to sing. A few fiery moments in the central section do not disturb the overall sense of calm.

Franz’s son Richard became the far more celebrated composer. Though he would eventually turn towards a modernist musical language in his operas like Elektra and Salome, he inherited his father’s aesthetic of elegance and continued to write achingly beautiful music for his whole life, with a fondness for the horn. This piece, written for his parents’ silver wedding anniversary, shows just a few hints of his Four Last Songs, meditations on ageing, the night and the natural world. 

Like Franz Strauss, the French composer Poulenc takes the genre of the ‘nocturne’ or ‘night-piece’ and turns it to a light meditation, here with flavours of improvisation and jazz harmony. The piece has an odd but calmly beautiful twist at the end.

Before the largest piece in the programme, the Aria from Bach’s Goldberg Variations cleanses the palate with its pure, slow, simple melody, said to have been written to help the Russian Count Hermann Kaiserling pass sleepless nights. 

Benjamin Britten’s Serenade joins the three instruments together for a more complex look at the night. Six English poems written across a 400-year span explore night’s symbolic connections with death, sickness, hellfire, sunset, sleep and the passing of time. Written for the tenor Peter Pears, Britten’s life partner, and the famous horn player Dennis Brain, these songs range from the calm to the creepy in Britten’s characteristic musical language, which as well as being a vocal workout also explore the horn’s range of sounds and colours including a technique called natural harmonics, which may sound out of tune to today’s ears.

—

This short lunchtime recital will be performed by Rory Lynch (tenor), and Will Bosworth (piano), both of whom are Vicars Choral at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral; and Elias García Hijano (Horn).

This highly sought-after event fills up quickly, so booking in advance is essential to secure your place. If your preferred session is sold out, don’t despair. Feel free to email Clark Brydon (Education & Safeguarding Officer) at education@stpatrickscathedral.ie who may be able to advise on availability.