Nicola Lisle talks to Sholto Kynoch about the Oxford Lieder’s Spring Song Weekend

You’ve heard of the Budget bounce? Well, Sholto Kynoch – founder and artistic director of the Oxford Lieder Festival – is hoping for a Schubert bounce.

Still basking in the after-glow of last year’s phenomenal Schubert Project, he is optimistic that enthusiasm will continue, starting with the Spring Weekend of Song this month.

“People are quite excited post-Schubert Project and are looking forward to getting back in and seeing all the friends they made,” Sholto says.

“It was an amazing few weeks, but it was also a platform on which to build, so it’s definitely put us on a new level. We had people coming in from all over the world and those are all people who are staying in touch and looking forward to their next visit.”

The Spring Weekend of Song, from April 10 to 12, is a great taster for this year’s main event and is based around the Oxford Lieder’s Young Artist Platform.

Two of the festival’s established stars, soprano Sophie Daneman and baritone Stephan Loges, launch proceedings on the Friday night with Schumann’s song cycle Myrthen; Sholto accompanying on the piano.

“It was Schumann’s wedding gift to Clara and we’ll be doing some Clara Schumann songs in the first half as well,” he explains. “And that’s a sort of early nod towards 2016, when we’ll be doing the complete Schumann songs, like we did for Schubert.”

On the Saturday, six young duos will each give a 40-minute recital, with Sophie Daneman and Stephan Loges adjudicating. Two duos will be selected as ambassadors for the Lieder Festival, to give recitals around the country in the hope of attracting new audiences to the art of song.

“The young artists get to choose their own programme and part of what the adjudicators look at is their programme choice,” explains Sholto.

“They have to find programmes that will be really engaging for people and they’re encouraged to speak a bit, to introduce the songs and so on. There’s always interesting, varied programmes.”

On the Sunday, Sophie and Stephan lead a masterclass for all six duos, before an evening recital by one of last year’s winning duos, tenor Alessandro Fisher and accompanist Ricardo Gosalbo.

In the middle – “slightly unrelated”, Sholto admits – a festival regular, soprano Mary Bevan, will join Sholto for Songs of Mayhem and Madness, a light-hearted look at how some poets and composers have dealt with mental illness. It will feature music by Purcell, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Strauss and others.

“It should be a lot of fun,“ promises Sholto. “And Mary is such an engaging and captivating performer.”

All of this, Sholto hopes, will whet appetites for the main Lieder Festival in October, which will feature the complete Fauré songs in a series of lunchtime concerts and more Schubert.

This year’s Budget bounce was a bit of non-event. I have a feeling the Schubert bounce is going to be a different story.

Oxford Lieder Festival Spring Weekend of Song
Holywell Music Room
April 10-12
Info and tickets: oxfordlieder.co.uk