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Details
St George's Church
105 High Street
Belfast
BT1 2AG
Northern Ireland
Programme
Richard Wagner – Wesendonck Lieder, WWV 91
Performers
Mark McGrath – Accompanist
Áine Brolly – soprano
Programme Note
“I have not written anything better than these songs..” Richard Wagner Áine Brolly, mezzo and sometime dramatic soprano, is to perform Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder alongside the highly accomplished pianist, Mark McGrath, in St. George’s church on the 20th April at 3pm.
This is Áine and Mark’s first performance together and Áine’s inaugural recital since she returned to the classical music scene a year ago. Áine began her training with Judith Sheridan at the Ulster College of Music before studying under acclaimed soprano, Suzanne Murphy both at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and the Irish Academy of Music. Additionally, she studied under Kiri Te Kanawa at the Solti Academy in Italy. Áine has sung Dido, Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana, Azucena in Il Trovatore, Charlotte in Werther and the Witch in Hansel & Gretel. Outside of opera, she has a deep love of lieder singing Brahms, Mahler, Schumann, Strauss, Schubert and Fauré. This is the first time she will perform Wagner.
Mark McGrath is a pianist, organist, composer, répétiteur and accompanist of great repute. He is currently the Director of Music at St. Finnian’s church, organist at St. George’s, Director of the Police Male Voice choir, the Belfast Phoenix choir and the St. George’s singers. Mark was Musical Director of the Centre Stage Theatre Company alongside the late Roma Tomelty, for whom he composed and performed the original score for Louis MacNeice’s The Dark Tower. He was previously Musical Director of Blunt Fringe’s productions of Jacques Brel is Alive & Well & Living in Paris’, The Last Five Years (Lyric Theatre), and The World Goes ‘Round (The MAC). More recently, he was Director of the Theatre at the Mill’s Christmas production O Holy Knight!, and Live at the Lyric, and Seisiún at The Lyric Theatre.
Wagner’s song collection ‘Five poems for a female voice’ (1857-58) – later known as Wesendonck-Lieder were set to five passionate poems written by Mathilde Wesendonck (Der Engel, Stehe Still, Im Treibhaus, Schmerzen and Träume) two of which, ‘Träume’ and ‘Im Treibhaus’, Wagner describes as studies for Tristan and Isolde, one of his most celebrated operas. These five lieder combine a use of chromaticism, expression and restless, wave-like phrases that have come to be associated with much of the composer’s oeuvre and there is a considerable variety of musical styles within the five short yet vocally demanding songs.
