Popular in the eighteenth century, Conversation Piece portraits depicted small groups of family or friends in domestic or garden settings. In this year’s Wigmore Hall Showcase, six Samling Artists invite you to enter the world of the Conversation Piece, revealing in song what might have been said and what was left unsaid across time and space.

Harriet Burns, soprano
Bethany Horak-Hallett, mezzo-soprano
Ted Black, tenor
James Newby, baritone
Ian Tindale, piano
Krystal Tunnicliffe, piano

This concert is part of Wigmore Hall’s under-35 ticket scheme. Register here to buy tickets for just £5

Associate sponsor

Programme

Johannes Brahms, Wechsellied zum Tanze, Op.31 no.1

Gabriel Fauré, from Cinq mélodies de Venise
Mandoline | En sourdine | Green | C’est l’extase

Jean Sibelius, Bollspelet vid Trianon, Op.36 no.3

Edvard Grieg, from Six poems by Henrik Ibsen, Op.25
Borte! | En fuglevise

Maurice Ravel, Sur l’herbe

Charles Bordes, Colloque sentimental

Claude Debussy, La mort des amants, Cinq poèmes de Baudelaire

Robert Schumann, Liebhabers Ständchen, Vier Duette (Op. 34)

Johannes Brahms, Vergebliches Ständchen, Op. 84 no.4
Rede, Mädchen, allzu liebes, Liebeslieder-Walzer

Hugo Wolf, from Italienisches Liederbuch
Ein Ständchen euch zu bringen | Mein Liebster singt am Haus
Was für ein Lied | Wer rief dich denn?

Louis Aubert, La lettre, Douze chants, no. 8

Cheryl Frances-Hoad, from Six songs of Melmoth
Shipwreck Gossip | Elinora’s Letter

Muriel Herbert, Jour des Morts

Jonathan Dove, Penelope, All the Future Days

Charles Ives, The Children’s Hour

Charles Villiers Stanford, A Lullaby, Op.19 No. 2

Harold Fraser-Simson, Halfway down the stairs

Richard Rodney Bennett, Sonnet on a Monkey, Garland for Marjorie Fleming

Liza Lehmann, Jim, Cautionary Tales

Mervyn Horder, Under the Greenwood Tree

Eric Coates, Sigh no more ladies

Image: detail from fireplace medallion of Orpheus and the animals by Louis Reid Deuchars, Lorimer Dining Room, Marchmont House. Photo ©️Andrew Montgomery/Marchmont House