Love, Loss and Longing at Elizabeth Gaskell's House

A reminder of an important musical (and poetic) alert for today, September 17 at the Elizabeth Gaskell House in Manchester:

Saturday, September 17, 2016 - 19:00

Concert: Love, Loss and Longing
As part of our Brontë200 season, join us for a programme exploring love, loss and longing in the life and work of Charlotte and Emily Brontë, through music and the spoken word.

The centrepiece of the concert will be the world premiere of Robin Walker’s Letter to Brussels, a setting of Charlotte Brontë’s passionate letters to Constantin Heger, her tutor in Brussels, performed by soprano Lesley-Jane Rogers.

Emily Brontë's poetry will complement Charlotte's texts, in anticipation of her own bicentenary in 2018, and we will hear work by contemporary poet Edwin Stockdale.  This is also a rare opportunity to hear the song cycle of six Emily Brontë poems by John Joubert, and the premiere of Robin Walker’s song setting of her poem Self-Interrogation.

The performance will take place in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Drawing Room, where Charlotte visited her dear friend (and biographer) on several occasions.

Featuring Lesley-Jane Rogers, Soprano
Janet Simpson, Piano
Suzanne Casey, violin
Philip Watts and Edwin Stockdale, Readings

Full Programme

Letter to Brussels  for soprano and piano by Robin Walker
Six Poems of Emily Brontë  for soprano and piano by John Joubert
Self-Interrogation  for soprano, violin and piano by Robin Walker
Poems by Edwin Stockdale
Readings of Charlotte and Emily Brontë's poetry

Programme devised by Pamela Nash