Programme
Heimliches Lieben by Franz Schubert
Tre Sonetti di Petrarca by Franz Liszt
Pace non trovo
Benedetto sia 'l giorno
I vidi in terra
Ihr Glocken von Marling by Franz Liszt
Shakespeare Songs by Castelnuovo-Tedesco
The Cuckoo and the Owl (from Love’s Labours Lost)
Take o take those lips away (from Measure for Measure)
Come to Dust (from Cymbeline)
O mistress mine (from Twelfth Night) 1
Porgy & Bess - Summertime by Gershwin
The Holmes-Colquhoun duo, making their St Martin-in-the-Fields debut, place Liszt at the heart of their recital as they explore his Tre Sonetti di Petrarca. Arias in all but name, the songs are packed with Petrarch's characteristic dichotomies of love and echoed Liszt’s lucious and evocatively dramatic writing with stratospheric climaxes and preciously intimate moments.
Inspired by the dramatic setting of Petrarch’s works the duo then move to Italian composer and U.S. citizen Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s charming Shakespeare Songs, completed in 1925. This intimate and varied setting captures the life in Shakespeare’s writing with a selection of pieces inspired by Cymbeline, Measure for Measure and Twelfth Night.
Dorset soprano Lizzie Holmes graduated with Distinction from the Royal College of Music (MPerf) in 2014, prior to this she studied English Literature at Warwick University (BAhons). She is a Concordia Artist and is grateful to the ongoing support of The Carne Trust.
With her ‘enchanting and creamy soprano’ (Planet Hugill), Lizzie’s notable performances include Mimi & Musetta in La Bohème (Trafalgar Studios, King’s Head Theatre); a ‘magnetic performance’ (Bachtrack) in the title role of The Coronation of Poppea (Ryedale Festival); lead in Hawes’ A King’s Ransom, premier (Into Opera, Britten Sinfonia); Despina Così fan tutte (Devon Opera); Miss Wordsworth, cover Albert Herring (Inaugural Grange Festival); Susanna The Marriage of Figaro (Bloomsbury Opera); La Bergère L'enfant et les sortilèges (RCMIOS), Florence in Burnside’s Journeying Boys (Britten Theatre); Madame Giry The Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty’s Theatre, West End debut); solo performances at St James’ Piccadilly, Bath Recitals and the V&A. Lizzie founded Debut in 2015, their groundbreaking concert series was recently featured in Opera Now.
Future performances: Cunegonde Candide for Bernstein’s 100th (Menick Theatre, Cornwall); Amore Orpheus and Eurydice (Opera in the City Festival) and Stephano, cover in Roméo et Juliette (Grange Park Opera). | www.lizzieholmes.com / @LizzieHo1mes
Lucy Colquhoun studied with Roger Vignoles at RCM winning all major accompaniment prizes including Joan Chissell Schumann Prize, Alisdair Graham Prize and Titanic Memoriam Prize (Lies Askonas Competition).
She was supported by the Kendall-Taylor Award, Douglas-and-Hilda-Simmonds-Award and Knights-of-the-Round-Table. She won the Richard Tickner Trust Award at the Somerset Song Prize. At RNCM, she won the RJ-Forbes-Prize for Accompaniment. She is a Britten-Pears-Young-Artist, Park-Lane-Group-Young-Artist and finalist in the Oxford-Lieder Competition (Peter Aisher, Julien Van Mellaerts).
Forthcoming performances: Durham University with Sir Thomas Allen, Oxford-Lieder Festival, Red House Aldeburgh, St-James’s-Piccadilly, National Gallery, St-Martin-in-the-Fields, RAH Elgar Room, British Music Society, Cheltenham Town Hall, Schubert Society, Grieg Society, Purcell-Room. She was a scholar at Franz Schubert Institute and worked closely with Joseph Horovitz, Paul Paterson and Gary Carpenter.
