Celebrated singer and Grand Finalist in the 2023 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, Beth Taylor, will join St Cecilia Orchestra in Ripon Cathedral to sing Elgar’s much-loved ‘Sea Pictures’ on 22nd March.
Glaswegian mezzo-soprano Beth Taylor, lauded for her ‘strong presence’, ‘sensational coloratura’ and ‘intriguing depth’, is at the onset of a major international career, with recent and coming engagements including performances with the London Philharmonic, the BBC Scottish Orchestra, and the Berlin Philharmonic, alongside operatic roles at Glyndebourne, Deutsche Oper and the Zurich Opera House.
Elgar’s ever popular ‘Sea Pictures’ is a setting of 5 poems, each offering a different response to the ocean and including one written by his wife, Alice. It comes directly after Enigma Variations in the composer’s output and remains a firm favourite with concert goers.
The Arts Fuse magazine describes it as offering “everything one might want in a song cycle: sweeping melodies, evocative scoring, stirring drama and pathos, and – that requisite Elgar ingredient – lots of heart”.
Beth said:
I’m very much looking forward to returning to Ripon to sing this glorious, moving and grand work. These songs are full of emotion, iridescent with Victorian splendour and drama and so well written for the lower female voice. To hear these beautiful songs of the sea with a live orchestra is not to be missed!
Opening the concert is Helena Munktell’s rich and colourful depiction of the sea, ‘Bränningar’ (Breaking Waves). Munktell, one the incredibly talented female Swedish composers who left for the continent in the 19th century, studied in Paris under Benjamin Godard and Vincent D’Indy. Her Symphonic poem is a swarm of colour, with powerful intensity.
The programme is completed with Mahler’s glorious Symphony No 1, described in Classical Music magazine as one of the most impressive symphonic debuts in the history of classical music – “captivating, eclectic and dazzling‘’.
Tickets, priced at £20-£35 for adults and free for under 18s, are available via the orchestra website: www.st-cecilia.org.uk. Tickets for unreserved seats can also be purchased from the Ripon Cathedral shop, Little Ripon Bookshop and Harrogate Theatre box office.
