In Praise of Landscape

The beauty, majesty and serenity of landscape are threads that run through each of the pieces in Hepton Singers’ June concert.  The programme will include Clara Schumann’s sublime musical depiction of Venice, Palestrina’s homage to the flowing waters of Babylon, as well as works by Edward Elgar, John Ireland and Ralph Vaughan Williams that celebrate the beauty of the English countryside.  

Closer to home, the concert will also include a performance of Meanderings, a piece written especially for Hepton Singers by the Glasgow-based composer Fergus Hall that honours both the language and landscape of the Upper Calder Valley .  There will be tributes to the animal world, from Josquin des Prez’s quirky salute to the humble cricket, to Howard Skempton’s skilful portrayal of the interlocking flight of two pewits (or lapwings!), as well as pieces by Kerry Andrew and Will Todd that acknowledge the importance of time and place more generally.  

Last but by no means least, there will be settings of some great poetry, from Eric Whitacre’s magnificent setting of Robert Frost’s classic poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, to Leonard Cohen’s moving words, There are Some Men, set to music by the American minimalist composer Philip Glass.