Unquiet Earth's Music (and a walk)

A couple of Brontë things to do on a Sunday:

In Birkenhead, UK:

Two Rivers Festival 2014
Sunday 11 May at 7.30pm
The Bushell Hall, Birkenhead School
Unquiet Earth
A sequence of words and music inspired by Wuthering Heights and poems by Emily Brontë

Sunday 11 May at 7.30pm
The Bushell Hall, Birkenhead School
Two Rivers Ensemble
Clare Hammond (piano) Jane Wilkinson (soprano)
Suzanne Casey (violin) Kenneth Woods (cello)
Peter Davison (narrator)

Beethoven Pathétique Sonata
Robin Walker Five Songs of Emily Brontë (first performance)Beethoven Cantata: Adelaide
Mendelssohn Adagio from Cello Sonata No.2
Andrew Keeling Piano Trio "Unquiet Earth"

Before the concert and during the interval, there will be a display of Brontë-related artwork by Yorkshire-based artist Justine O’Brien.

The short, difficult life of Emily Brontë produced one of the most original novels of the 19C, Wuthering Heights. In a sequence of words and music performed by the festival's newly formed in-house ensemble, we discover more about this enigmatic free-spirit who loved the wild moors of Yorkshire where her imagination could roam free. The festival has commissioned Todmorden-based Robin Walker to set five of her poems for voice, violin and piano, exploring lost love and resignation. Extracts from the novel and other writings appear alongside a stormy piano sonata by Beethoven, whose cantata of unobtainable love, Adelaide, is among the Brontës' music collection in Haworth. Finally, the British première of Andrew Keeling's Unquiet Earth offers a lyrical response to Wuthering Heights' ambivalent last paragraphs in music of rare pathos.

Peter Davison, the Festival's director and narrator of this event describes the concert on Kenneth Wood's blog (who plays the cello, by the way):

(...)
Robin Walker, who lives and works close to Haworth, in sight of the same Yorkshire moors which so inspired Emily Brontë’s writing has set four of her poems, which explore feelings of grief and separation against the backdrop of Nature. The absent lover is a blissful presence, but only in memory. There is a pervasive longing to restore the lost flow of life and to recover innocence. Death offers an escape; a way finally to unite with the unattainable beloved. Deep sadness suffuses these poems. There is resignation to a tragic destiny. It is true that Emily found some consolation in her Christian faith, also in the beauty of Nature and in her prodigious imagination, but throughout we feel the cold hand of mortality is beckoning her ever closer. By the end of this song-cycle, her faith in redemption seems as fragile her physical well-being. (...)
Andrew Keeling’s piano trio Unquiet Earth (2006) was inspired by the final paragraph of Wuthering Heights. The novel ends with tantalising ambiguity. The main characters all lie dead, but the novel’s narrator returns to the scene of the tempestuous events and perverse relationships which made the story. We are compelled to reflect in these last pages upon what may follow. Where Nature has been so rigorously denied, must there always be ghostly echoes of those thwarted desires? Must cries of anger and despair resound through successive generations? Will the souls of the dead continue to haunt the living, as victim and victimiser entangle in an eternally destructive embrace? Or – do the dead rest in peace, finally free of their unhappiness and their need to strive to fulfil themselves?

More information in Chester Chronicle and Wirral News.

And in Lancashire:

Sunday 11th May at 1pm
Spring Walk 2014 including Wycoller Hall and the 'Atom' Panopticon

You can either bring a packed lunch or there is a cafe close by.
Open to all and perfect for those who like rambling, history or are lovers of literature!
The walk will be approx. 5 miles and will include Clam Bridge, Walton's Cross, waterfalls and splendid panoramaic views from the Panopticon.
Tickets are £5 and can be bought either by cheque in advance (payable to The Brontë Society) or can be purchased on the day with cash.
A car park is available at Wycoller Country Park.