Bliss Concert Series: Wolf: Italienisches Liederbuch

Mary Bevan read Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic literature at Trinity College Cambridge and has gone on to establish her place as one of the country’s finest sopranos. She is a winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist Award and UK Critics’ Circle Award for Exceptional Young Talent and was awarded a MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours. Julien Van Mellaerts represented New Zealand in the most recent Cardiff Singer of the World competition. He has won numerous prestigious awards, including the Wigmore Hall, Kathleen Ferrier and 2018 Concours Musical International de Montréal.

These two young stars of the recital world join forces with Royal Philharmonic Society Award winner Joseph Middleton to perform Wolf’s towering masterpiece made up of 46 miniature songs. Italian folksong sits side-by-side with the highest German art as the intense human activity of an Italian village is brought to life by two of its inhabitants. Love, jealousy, sex, nature, all of this is explored, and the full gamut of emotions, from coquettish flirtation to desperate heartbreak will be on show in this Mediterranean journey.

“Middleton is outstanding, his reputation as a rising star among accompanists richly deserved.” Gramophone Magazine