Oxford Lieder Festival 2015

Last year, the Oxford Lieder Festival devoted its whole run to Schubert, performing for the first time every single one of his six hundred-plus songs. For 2015, their programme is more than a little wider. The fourteenth incarnation of this cherished annual event will showcase the connections between music and poetry. For two weeks, the dreaming spires will sparkle with song.
There will be concerts that focus on the lyrics of Shakespeare, Goethe, Byron, Puskhin, Heine, Verlaine, Housman, Éluard and more. The festival opens in Christopher Wren’s miraculous Sheldonian Theatre with mezzo Sarah Connolly and pianist Graham Johnson performing Schubert, Brahms and Wolf. Over the next two afternoons, Johnson will return to survey Fauré’s career in song. Each evening will see a roster of world-acclaimed vocalists and accompanists – including Elizabeth Watts, Julius Drake, Christine Rice and Christoph Prégardien – take on settings of particular poets. It may not have last year’s extraordinary focus, but this year’s festival has something for everyone.