Befreit – A Soul Surrendered Kitty Whately & Joseph Middleton

• Johanna Müller-Hermann (1868 - 1941): Wie eine Vollmondnacht, Op. 20 No. 4:
• 1 Müller-Hermann: Wie eine Vollmondnacht, Op. 20 No. 4 02:54
• Der letzte Abend, Op. 2 No. 4:
• 2 Müller-Hermann: Der letzte Abend, Op. 2 No. 4 03:30
• Richard Strauss (1864 - 1949): Befreit, Op. 39, TrV 189 No. 4:
• 3 Strauss: Befreit, Op. 39, TrV 189 No. 4 05:10
• Allerseelen, Op. 10, TrV 141 No. 8:
• 4 Strauss: Allerseelen, Op. 10, TrV 141 No. 8 03:06
• Margarete Schweikert (1887 - 1957): Wolke I:
• 5 Schweikert: Wolke I 01:36
• Totenhausen:
• 6 Schweikert: Totenhausen 04:26
• Zusammen sterben:
• 7 Schweikert: Zusammen sterben 02:02
• Richard Strauss: Auf ein Kind, Op. 47, TrV 200 No. 1:
• 8 Strauss: Auf ein Kind, Op. 47, TrV 200 No. 1 02:15
• Rückleben, Op. 47, TrV 200 No. 3:
• 9 Strauss: Rückleben, Op. 47, TrV 200 No. 3 04:09
• Morgen!, Op. 27, TrV 170 No. 4:
• 10 Strauss: Morgen!, Op. 27, TrV 170 No. 4 04:05
• Johanna Müller-Hermann: Die stille Stadt, Op. 4 No. 1:
• 11 Müller-Hermann: Die stille Stadt, Op. 4 No. 1 02:20
• Herbst, Op. 20 No. 2:
• 12 Müller-Hermann: Herbst, Op. 20 No. 2 02:53
• In Memoriam, Op. 28 No. 5:
• 13 Müller-Hermann: In Memoriam, Op. 28 No. 5 02:31
• Margarete Schweikert: Unser Haus:
• 14 Schweikert: Unser Haus 02:40
• Die Entschlafenen:
• 15 Schweikert: Die Entschlafenen 02:24
• Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911): Kindertotenlieder:
• 16 Mahler: Kindertotenlieder: No. 1, Nun will die Sonn' so hell aufgeh'n! 04:40
• 17 Mahler: Kindertotenlieder: No. 2, Nun seh' ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flammen 04:31
• 18 Mahler: Kindertotenlieder: No. 3, Wenn dein Mütterlein 04:05
• 19 Mahler: Kindertotenlieder: No. 4, Oft denk' ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen! 02:58
• 20 Mahler: Kindertotenlieder: No. 5, In diesem Wetter! 06:05
• Johanna Müller-Hermann: Widmung, Op. 20 No. 1 (Bonus Track):
• 21 Müller-Hermann: Widmung, Op. 20 No. 1 (Bonus Track) 03:07
• Margarete Schweikert: Einem Vorangegangenen (Bonus Track):
• 22 Schweikert: Einem Vorangegangenen (Bonus Track) 02:23
• Total Runtime 01:13:50

Info for Befreit – A Soul Surrendered

Mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately trained at Chetham's School of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the International Opera School of the Royal College of Music. Having won both the Kathleen Ferrier Award and Royal Overseas League Award in the same year, she attended the prestigious Academy of the Verbier Festival. She writes of this project: 'It has been my great pleasure to record with Joseph once again. We have long shared a mutual passion for early-twentieth-century-romantic Lieder and talked of making a disc including songs by Mahler and Strauss. The opportunity to discover and research lesser-known composers from their era has been thrilling and fascinating. As the world endured the pandemic, we all experienced fear and danger and loss in a way that most of our generation never did before, on such a global scale. Joseph and I felt drawn to reflect on grief, mortality, and bereavement.' The two lesser-known composers featured in the recording are Johanna Müller-Hermann (who studied with several of the most prominent teachers in Vienna - Josef Labor, Guido Adler, Alexander Zemlinsky, Josef Bohuslav Foerster, Franz Schmidt) and Margarete Schweikert, who's upbringing and life in Karlsruhe and studies with Joseph Haas in Stuttgart could hardly provide a greater contrast - clearly audible in their music.

Kitty Whately, mezzo-soprano
Joseph Middleton, piano

Kitty Whately
trained at Chetham’s School of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the Royal College of Music International Opera School. She won both the Kathleen Ferrier Award and the 59th Royal Overseas League Award in the same year, and was part of the prestigious Verbier Festival Academy where she appeared as Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro and in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy. Kitty was a BBC New Generation Artist from 2013-15, during which time she recorded her debut solo album This Other Eden, made recordings with the BBC orchestras, commissioned a new song cycle from Jonathan Dove, and made several appearances at the Proms.

Current engagements include Hansel Hansel and Gretel and Donna Elvira Don Giovanni (Scottish Opera), Kate Owen Wingrave (Grange Park Opera), Annina Der Rosenkavalier (Garsington Opera), Dog / Forester's Wife / Woodpecker / Owl The Cunning Little Vixen with the CBSO in Birmingham, Paris, Hamburg and Dortmund and her usual assortment of recitals. Recent opera highlights include Isabella Wuthering Heights and Kate Owen Wingrave(Opera National de Lorraine, Nancy), Paquette Candide (Bergen National Opera, following a concert performance of the role at The Grange Festival), Mother/Other Mother in the world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s latest opera Coraline (Barbican, produced by the Royal Opera House), Meg Little Women and Dorabella Così fan tutte (Opera Holland Park), Nancy Albert Herring (The Grange Festival) and as Hermia A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Aix-en-Provence Festival and in Beijing). Kitty also performed in the world premiere of Vasco Mendonça’s The House Taken Over directed by Katie Mitchell, with performances in Antwerp, Strasbourg, Luxembourg, Bruges and Lisbon. Other operatic roles include Rosina Il barbiere di Siviglia and Stewardess in Jonathan Dove’s Flight (Opera Holland Park); Hermia A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bergen National Opera); Dorabella Così fan tutte (English Touring Opera) and Ippolita / Pallade in Cavalli’s Elena in Montpellier and Versailles for the Aix-en-Provence Festival.

Kitty is in high demand as a recitalist and concert artist. She made her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, singing Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as well as a recital alongside Malcolm Martineau at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Recent concert performances include Mahler Das Lied von der Erde at the Mizmorim Festival in Basel, The Dream of Gerontius with Crouch End Festival Chorus at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and recitals of English song at Wigmore Hall and the Salisbury International Festival. She has given performances with most of the UK’s major orchestras, including Duruflé’s Requiem and Mozart’s Requiem (in Oslo with the Dunedin Consort and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra), Bach’s B Minor Mass (Royal Northern Sinfonia and Scottish Chamber Orchestra), Beethoven’s Mass in C Major (Philharmonia Orchestra), Haydn’s Nelson Mass (Britten Sinfonia on tour in Spain and the Netherlands), Bach’s Magnificat (Britten Sinfonia and Choir of King’s College Cambridge), Elgar The Dream of Gerontius at St John’s Smith Square and Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Handel's Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall. Kitty has given recitals at the Edinburgh International, Salisbury International, Oxford Lieder, Leeds Lieder and Buxton festivals, working regularly with renowned accompanists including James Baillieu, Julius Drake, Graham Johnson, Simon Lepper, Malcolm Martineau, Gary Matthewman, Joseph Middleton, Anna Tilbrook and Roger Vignoles.

Kitty made her BBC Proms debut in Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Suite from Act II of Caroline Mathilde, and also appeared in a Chamber Music Prom singing the music of Stephen Sondheim. Her frequent performances with the BBC orchestras include De Falla’s The Three Cornered Hat (BBC National Orchestra of Wales) and Nancy in a concert performance of Britten’s Albert Herring (BBC Symphony Orchestra), as well as recordings of Ravel’s Sheherezade (BBC Philharmonic Orchestra), Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne (BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra), and songs by Rodgers & Hammerstein, Jerome Kern and Cole Porter (BBC Concert Orchestra).

In 2017 Kitty released her second album, Nights not spent alone, to critical acclaim. Recorded in a co-production between Champs Hill Records and the BBC, and accompanied by distinguished pianist Simon Lepper, the disc presents complete works for mezzo-soprano by Jonathan Dove. It includes a song cycle of the same name dedicated to Kitty, which she premiered at the Cheltenham Music Festival in 2015.

Joseph Middleton
specialises in the art of song and was the first accompanist to win the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist Award. He is Director of Leeds Lieder, Musician in Residence at Pembroke College, Cambridge and Fellow and Professor of his alma mater, the Royal Academy of Music. Alongside the world’s finest singers, Joseph appears at major music centres including Wigmore Hall, New York’s Lincoln Centre, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Konzerthaus Vienna, Kölner Philharmonie, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Musée d’Orsay, Oji Hall Tokyo and Festivals in Aix-en-Provence, Aldeburgh, BBC Proms, Edinburgh, San Francisco, Schubertiade Hohenems and Schwarzenberg, Seoul, and Vancouver. He frequently curates his own series for BBC Radio and his critically acclaimed and fast-growing discography have won the Diapason D’or, Edison Award and Priz Caecilia.

Booklet for Befreit – A Soul Surrendered