Ian Venables has turned to the poetry of Ivor Gurney to evoke the landscape of Gloucestershire in a new song cycle for baritone Roderick Williams. The Pine Boughs Past Music has been commissioned in celebration of the eightieth anniversary of the Gloucester Music Society; it received its world premiere at the church of St Mary de Lode in Gloucester on April 15 performed by Williams with pianist Andrew West. The cycle sets three of Gurney’s poems, The Wind, Soft Rain, My heart makes songs on lonely roads, concluding with Leonard Clark’s In Memoriam IBG.
The Pine Boughs Past Music will be given a second performance at this year’s Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester on August 14. The festival will also include Venables’ Invite to Eternity performed by tenor Andrew Kennedy and the Dante String Quartet on August 14.
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