Sunday Classical
Take Wing!
Nick Hurndall-Smith and Jen Hartley
Songs About Birds For Tenor And Piano
Sunday 9th March 2025, 2:30pm
Take Wing
After their warm reception in the Sedbergh Festival 2024, tenor Nicholas Hurndall Smith and pianist Jen Hartley have produced an exciting new recital programme for 2025 and beyond.
The collection of songs takes in 18 different composers, all inspired to set texts with birds at the heart of the poetry, each in their own unique way, and in five different languages.
The avian theme begins with Purcell and Tippett, continues with Britten, Barber and Finzi, before heading east, with music by Schubert, Brahms, Mahler and Tchaikovsky. The cast of birds includes the swan, nightingale, crow, pigeon and cuckoo with the wagtail, swallow and even chicken making an appearance. We also encounter more exotic birds, such as the humming bird, golden plover, stork, ibis, spoonbill and flamingo.
The songs are humorous or reflective, grief-laden or exuberant.
The programme includes Tippett’s virtuosic cantata, ‘Boyhood’s End’ based on WH Hudson’s memoir of his childhood in the Argentine pampas, as well as favourites from Schubert’s song cycles Die Schöne Müllerin and Winterreise. There are also two piano solos by Rameau and Messiaen.
Join us for this full length recital, and enjoy hearing these fabulous composers take wing.
Nicholas Hurndall Smith is a classical singer, conductor, singing teacher, expedition climber, mountain leader and rock climbing instructor. Born in Hertfordshire, he is married with two daughters and based in Kendal. Throughout his career he has sung worldwide with the solo voice ensemble I Fagiolini, as well as appearing in opera and oratorio, and increasingly as a
recitalist.
Jen Hartley is a teacher, pianist and composer. She read Music at Cambridge University and completed a PhD at the RNCM. She enjoys working as an accompanist and directing choirs,
and is currently the Associate Composer for Cumbria Opera Group, and teaches at Chetham’s School of Music.
