George Robarts, baritone | Thomas Eeckhout, piano
Turn-of-the-century Britain: a stuffy, supercilious place dominated by a small handful of composers, who all wore unbearably uncomfortable clothes, and all churned out unbearably sentimental music.
Right?
Wrong!
Well, perhaps right about the clothes. But a multitude of wonderful songwriters from this era, who were widely performed in their own lifetime, have since been swept under the carpet and consigned to the cultural dustbin. Not through any failings of their own: they have simply been condemned as old-fashioned and artistically irrelevant. Too old. Too romantic. Too female.
George Robarts and Thomas Eeckhout are here to set the record straight. This colourful hour-long programme launches a staunch defence of some of Britain’s finest and most neglected musicians – featuring Victorian parlour songs, Georgian pastoral idylls, and a startling Edwardian flirtation with German Expressionism. With songs by Maude Valérie White, Amy Woodforde-Finden, Muriel Herbert, and previously unpublished work by Rebecca Clarke (recently premiered by George and Thomas at the Oxford International Song Festival), there will be new discoveries for all comers here. And the tunes will be going round in your head for days afterwards.