ELEGY Mary Bevan & Joseph Middleton

• Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937): 2 Mélodies hébraïques, M. A22:
• 1 Ravel: 2 Mélodies hébraïques, M. A22: No. 1, Kaddisch. Lent 05:05
• Ernest Chausson (1855 - 1899): 7 Mélodies, Op. 2:
• 2 Chausson: 7 Mélodies, Op. 2: No. 6, Hébé 02:48
• Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828): Nachtstück, D. 672:
• 3 Schubert: Nachtstück, D. 672 05:25
• Auflösung, D. 807:
• 4 Schubert: Auflösung, D. 807 02:25
• Die Junge Nonne, D. 828:
• 5 Schubert: Die Junge Nonne, D. 828 04:36
• Henry Purcell: An Evening Hymn, Z. 193 (Arr. for Soprano and Piano by Benjamin Britten):
• 6 Purcell: An Evening Hymn, Z. 193 (Arr. for Soprano and Piano by Benjamin Britten) 04:28
• Frank Bridge (1879 - 1941): Come to me in my dreams, H. 71:
• 7 Bridge: Come to me in my dreams, H. 71 03:37
• Gabriel Fauré (1845 - 1924): 3 Mélodies, Op. 7:
• 8 Fauré: 3 Mélodies, Op. 7: No. 1, Après un rêve 02:54
• Clara Schumann (1819 - 1896): Die gute Nacht, die ich dir sage:
• 9 Schumann: Die gute Nacht, die ich dir sage 02:36
• Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897): 4 Ernste Gesänge, Op. 121:
• 10 Brahms: 4 Ernste Gesänge, Op. 121: No. 3, O Tod, wie bitter bist du. Grave 03:37
• Errollyn Wallen (b. 1958): Peace on Earth:
• 11 Wallen: Peace on Earth 03:26
• Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856): 6 Gedichte von N. Lenau und Requiem, Op. 90:
• 12 Schumann: 6 Gedichte von N. Lenau und Requiem, Op. 90: No. 7, Requiem 04:10
• Jeanne Landry (1922 - 2011): Amour comme un oiseau captif:
• 13 Landry: Amour comme un oiseau captif: No. 8, Mort quand tu me viendras prendre 01:02
• Pauline Viardot (1821 - 1910): Lamento, VWV. 1139:
• 14 Viardot: Lamento, VWV. 1139 03:15
• Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958): 4 Last Songs:
• 15 Williams: 4 Last Songs: No. 3, Tired 02:23
• Edvard Grieg (1843 - 1907): 6 Lieder, Op. 48:
• 16 Grieg: 6 Lieder, Op. 48: No. 2, Dereinst, Gedanke mein. Molto Andante 02:47
• Samuel Barber (1910 - 1981): Hermit Songs, Op. 29:
• 17 Barber: Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 10, The Desire for Hermitage 03:13
• Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911): Rückert-Lieder:
• 18 Mahler: Rückert-Lieder: No. 3, Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen 06:12
• Richard Strauss (1864 - 1949): 4 Lieder, Op. 27, TrV 170:
• 19 Strauss: 4 Lieder, Op. 27, TrV 170: No. 4, Morgen! 03:50
• Total Runtime 01:07:49

Info for ELEGY

Mary Bevan and Joseph Middleton’s new album Elegy grew out of their recital programme From Earth to Heaven, conceived during a time of deep personal loss. Shaped by Bevan’s experience of grieving her father, the recital explores the mystery of death and the solace music can offer. Featuring works by Schubert, Fauré, Mahler, Jeanne Landry, Errollyn Wallen, and Pauline Viardot amongst others, Elegy is a poignant journey through mourning and transcendence. Their previous album Voyages was shortlisted for a Gramophone Award, and the duo’s recitals across Europe have been met with widespread critical acclaim.

This recital programme began life as ‘From Earth to Heaven’, a title thought up for my 2022 Dartington Summer School / BBC Radio 3 recital with Joseph Middleton. During that time I was grieving the death of my father, who had died six months before, on 28th November 2021. My siblings and I had spent his last months caring for him at my sister Tess’s home in Oxfordshire. Being there as he died, holding his head in my arms along with my sisters, was the single most spiritual experience of my life. The feeling of utter joy and peace in that room in the moments after his death was actually palpable; I wasn’t even surprised when it started to gently snow outside—it was as if he was trying to show us the peace he’d finally found. So when Sara Mohr-Pietsch asked me to create this programme, I wanted more than anything to share with the audience even just a little bit of this peace, to perhaps inspire hope that we all have this to come, but also to simply explore the mystery of death and the many ways in which it has been perceived through music and poetry over the centuries. It also happened that at this time the world was going through its own grieving process after Covid had taken many loved ones too soon. When it comes to loss, sometimes only music can express the complex emotions that arise within us. I hope that the songs that make up this elegy of my own may go some way to doing this for whoever may need it; it has certainly helped me.

Mary Bevan, soprano
Joseph Middleton, piano

Mary Bevan
Praised by Opera for her “dramatic wit and vocal control”, British soprano Mary Bevan is internationally renowned in baroque, classical and contemporary repertoire, and appears regularly with leading conductors, orchestras and ensembles around the world. She is a winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist award and UK Critics’ Circle Award for Exceptional Young Talent in music and was awarded a MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list in 2019.

In the 2021/22 season, Bevan performs Haydn The Creation at the Barbican Hall with the Academy of Ancient Music, Belinda and First Witch Dido & Aeneas with the Early Opera Company at St John’s Smith Square, a European tour of Handel Messiah with Kammerorchester Basel, Handel Theresienmesse with the Handel and Haydn Society and Bach B Minor Mass with the Philhamonia Baroque Orchestra. Further highlights include recitals at Wigmore Hall, Lammermuir Festival and Osafestivalen alongside returns to Oxford Lieder, the Bolshoi Theatre and Carnegie Hall.

Last season, she returned to Royal Danish Opera for her role debut as Marzelline Fidelio and for the production LIGHT Bach Dances with director John Fuljames and conductor Lars Ulrik Mortensen. She also made her house debut at the Bolshoi Theatre in David Alden’s production of Ariodante as Dalinda. On the concert stage, she sang the world premiere of Sir James MacMillan's Christmas Oratorio at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and A.Bliss Rout with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Highlights of previous seasons include Rose Maurrant in Weill’s Street Scene for Opera de Monte Carlo and Eurydice in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld for English National Opera. Bevan recently garnered praise for her Royal Danish Opera debut as Bellezza in Il Trionfo del tempo e del desinganno, for the title role in Turnage’s new opera Coraline for the Royal Opera at the Barbican, as well as for her return to the English National Opera as Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and her debut as Merab in Saul for the Adelaide Festival. For the Royal Opera House she created the role of Lila in David Bruce’s The Firework-Maker’s Daughter, sang Barbarina Le nozze di Figaro on the main stage, and the title role in Rossi’s Orpheus at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.

On the concert platform, recent highlights include appearences with the BBC Symphony, BBC Concert Orchestra at the Proms, and with Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and the CBSO in the world premiere of Roxanna Panufnik’s Faithful Journey. She joined the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment as Mary in Sally Beamish The Judas Passion; performed Bach Christmas Oratorio on tour in Australia with the Choir of London and Australian Chamber Orchestra; and Handel Messiah with the Academy of Ancient Music. She also headlined a tour of Asia with The English Concert and Harry Bicket and made her Carnegie Hall debut with the ensemble as Dalinda in Handel Ariodante.

Bevan’s discography includes her art song album Voyages with pianist Joseph Middleton and Handel's Queens with London Early Opera, both released by Signum Records, Mendelssohn songs for Champs Hill Records, Handel: The Triumph of Time and Truth and Handel: Ode for St Cecilia’s Day with Ludus Baroque, and Vaughan Williams Symphony No.3 and Schubert Rosamunde with the BBC Philharmonic. In autumn 2019 Signum released her second disc with Joseph Middleton including Lieder by Schubert, Haydn and Wolf.

Joseph Middleton
The highly acclaimed pianist Joseph Middleton specialises in the repertoire of chamber music and song. He has enjoyed partnerships with Sir Thomas Allen, Dame Felicity Lott, Carolyn Sampson, Dame Sarah Connolly, Ian Bostridge, Christopher Maltman, Kate Royal, Wolfgang Holzmair, Iestyn Davies, Christiane Karg, Louise Alder, Mark Padmore and Katarina Karnéus in venues including New York’s Alice Tully Hall, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Cologne Philharmonie, Zürich Tonhalle, Luxembourg Philharmonie and London’s Wigmore Hall. He is a regular guest at festivals in Aix-en-Provence, Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Munich, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Ravinia, San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver as well as the BBC Proms, and is heard frequently in his own series on BBC Radio3. Joseph Middleton is director of Leeds Lieder, musician in residence at Pembroke College Cambridge and a professor at his alma mater, the Royal Academy of Music. He has a fast-growing and award-winning discography and was the recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist of the Year Award in 2017.

Booklet for ELEGY