Festival is lieder of the pack for classical singers

AS a girl singing in the choir at Lawnswood High School, little did Jane Anthony know that she would one day found a festival of song in her home city. No, she doesn’t aspire to turn Leeds into the Yorkshire sister of Llangollen; but every two years she fills the city with poetry set to music by famous composers, sung in many languages and staged at various venues, with The Venue at Leeds College of Music as its hub.

The young soprano left school for the Royal Academy of Music followed by further study at the Royal Northern College of Music and in time returned to Leeds, singing with the nascent Orchestra of Opera North. She later became a teacher at LCM and founded its vocal studies department, establishing a full-time students’ opera class and a culture of regular opera performance. With conductor John Longstaff she mounted 11 fully-staged operas, with cast and orchestra made up of full-time music students. Through her teaching work, she conceived the idea of a festival of song.

“I had lots of young people learning classical songs or lieder, but there were no concerts of that kind of song in the north of England,” says Jane. “There’s a huge repertoire, and they need a more intimate venue than a huge concert hall. I wanted the Festival to bring the best to Leeds and show the best of Leeds and for each Festival to introduce lieder to more and more people.” Outside of Leeds Lieder+ you’ll have to go to London’s Wigmore Hall to get a regular fix.

Lieder is a German word that simply means “song”, and is usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of high literary merit to music. The form became fashionable in 19th century Germany, with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, Franz Schubert and Hugo Wolf among the composers who espoused the idea of producing musical settings for these poems.

In time the tradition was taken up in other languages, with the Lieder repertoire focusing in great part on pastoral themes or romantic love.

Schubert wrote more than 600 songs, some of them in sequences of song cycles that tell a story. In the 20th century the tradition was continued by Strauss, Mahler and Protzner.

Parallel lieder “scenes” developed in other countries, notably in France, with songs composed by Berlioz, Fauré, Debussy and Francis Poulenc, in Russia with the melodies of Mussorgsky and Rachmaninov, and in the US with the music of Copeland, Ives and Barber in particular. A famous English lieder song is Silent Noon, a Christina Rosetti poem set to music by Vaughan Williams.

Jane founded Leeds Lieder+ (the “plus” being the fact that the festival features German songs and many in other languages) in 2004 and the first of the two-yearly Festivals was held in 2005. Its basic mission was to showcase a rather neglected form and to give a platform to great singers who are enthusiastic about the lieder repertoire. People who are already devotees of classical music and opera enjoy lieder, says Jane, but each festival also brings in those who don’t necessarily frequent the works of Opera North or orchestral concerts. Many are instantly won over. Some of the world’s top singers have been attracted to perform at the three festivals so far, including such names as Dame Janet Baker and Barbara Bonney. This year’s Festival highlights include world-renowned English soprano Dame Felicity Lott and Austrian baritone Florian Boesch. The guest of honour will be Dutch soprano Elly Ameling, who will lead a public masterclass alongside Dame Margaret Price and Roger Vignoles.

“Lieder did in the past have a reputation for being elitist, probably just because some of the songs were in foreign languages,” says Jane. “But we’ve found that tickets have sold well, ever since the first concert. We provide translations of any foreign songs. People who’ve never experienced lieder before say it is a very intense experience. It’s just the voice and an accompanist and songs that express the beauty of poetry with music composed especially to suit it and enhance it.”

Leeds Lieder+ takes place from October 7-9. Info: 0113 234 6956/www.leedslieder.org.uk Box Office 0113 222 3434 (10am-5pm).

Music and words in perfect harmony

Leeds Lieder+ Festival weekend includes events to suit all tastes, from Discovering Lieder+ to Bright Is The Ring of Words, settings of Shakespeare, Byron and RL Stevenson, featuring music by Alison Bauld, Strauss, Vaughan Williams, Mendelssohn, Parry, Quilter, Finzi and John Dankworth. Among the other highlights are a Composers’+Poets’ Forum, and a Made in Yorkshire concert. The pre-Festival concert Family Lieder+ The Wonderful World of Song will be held at Clothworkers Centenary Hall, University of Leeds on Sunday September 25, 3pm.