My Program: Edward Elgar – Sea Pictures (25:00)
Edward Elgar – Organ Grinder’s songs from The Starlight Express (15:00)
“To the Children”
“The Blue-Eyes Fairy”
“My Old Tunes”
Intermission
Hector Berlioz – Sara la baigneuse (7:00)
Hector Berlioz – Les nuits d’ete (30:00)
Hector Berlioz – Duet “Vous soupirez, madame” from Beatrice et Benedict (10:00)
The case for my program: This program features two of the greatest orchestral song cycles in Sea Pictures and Les nuits d’ete, along with several comparatively neglected vocal pieces. Nothing evokes for me the image of Elgar, eternally youthful composer of the Wand of Youth, more than My Old Tunes: “Now I am a constellation, free from every earthly care, playing nightly at my station for the Big and Little Bear.” Sara la baigneuse is a choral piece, but I can’t resist including it, and nothing could end the program more beautifully than the duet from Beatrice et Benedict.
