Caroline MacPhie soprano
Carris Jones mezzo-soprano
Nicholas Merryweather baritone
Eva Thorarinsdottir violin
Libby Burgess piano
Malcolm Tomlinson actor
Britten Cabaret Songs
Watkins Larkin Songs
Ravel Sonata for violin and piano
Hyde Larkin Settings
Finzi Earth and Air and Rain
This celebration of one of Britain’s favourite and greatest post-war poets, who lived and worked down the road in Hull, combines musical settings of his poems with spoken verse (featuring cherished local actor Malcolm Tomlinson). Two of Larkin’s key influences, Auden and Hardy, also inspired great songs. The Finzi Day festivities run through this special concert with perhaps Finzi’s greatest song cycle, and contemporary settings of Larkin previously commissioned by the Finzi Friends. Larkin claimed “I can live a week without poetry but not a day without jazz”: also in the mix are jazz-infused works by Britten and Ravel.
