Nicola Lisle looks forward to an evening of Shakespeare songs at SJE Arts to mark the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death

The sixth concert in this year’s SJE International Piano Series has a slightly different look about it - it is the only concert in the series to feature a singer.

Baritone Ashley Riches - a former Jette Parker Young Artist at the Royal Opera House - will join acclaimed Italian pianist Emma Abbate for Sweet Love Remember’d - A musical celebration of Shakespeare and his England.

“We’re putting together different composers who set music to works by Shakespeare,” explains Emma. “We combine songs by people like Quilter and Finzi, who are quite well known, with some lesser known works. We have two by Roxanna Panufnik, a song cycle by John Joubert and we’re doing some Madeleine Dring.

“We’re also doing songs from a recent release that Ashley and I recorded of some Shakespeare sonnets by an Italian composer called Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. We recorded the sonnets a couple of years ago and we actually recorded the music at St John the Evangelist Church, so we already have a connection with the venue. So we are including some songs from our recording in the concert.”

The Quilter selection, which opens the concert, includes some of the best-known Shakespeare songs, including Who is Sylvia? from Two Gentlemen of Verona, Sigh no more, ladies from Much Ado About Nothing and When daffodils begin to peer from The Winter’s Tale.

Another familiar selection, this time by Finzi, closes the concert and includes his setting of Who is Sylvia?, as well as Come away, come away, Death and O mistress mine from Twelfth Night, and It was a lover and his lass from As You Like It.

In between is a treasure trove of lesser-known delights, including Joubert’s That Time of Year, four of Madeleine Dring’s Seven Shakespeare Songs, four of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s sonnets and Panufnik’s Mine eye and Sweet love remember’d, as well as Nos. 1 and 4 from Elgar’s Five Piano Improvisations.

With such a wealth of Shakespeare-inspired music to choose from, it must be difficult to decide what to put in a two-hour programme, I suggest to Emma.

“We were really spoilt for choice,” she agrees. “We decided to focus on 20th century composers and the main theme is English composers, but also Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and we included Roxanna because she is English but has a Polish background, so that made it a bit more varied.

“And of course they are very different. For instance, the Madeleine Dring that we’re performing has got a very strong influence of jazz. Joubert is much more dramatic.

“Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco wrote a lot of music for film in Hollywood. He was Jewish so in 1939 he chose to move to the United States, which was a very common choice at the time. He became a very prolific composer in Hollywood and his music is quite easy listening.”

It’s a tried and tested programme - Emma and Ashley have performed it a number of times, including at events celebrating the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth in 2014.

“Ashley’s fantastic with English,” Emma says. “He read English at King’s College, Cambridge, so he has a very strong literature background and was the perfect choice for this programme.”

The evening includes a pre-concert interview with composer Roxanna Panufnik, who will discuss her Shakespeare settings as well as other past and upcoming projects.

Where&When

Sweet Love Remember’d with Ashley Riches & Emma Abbate

St John the Evangelist Church, Iffley Road

May 12, 7.30pm (pre-concert talk at 6.30)

Tickets: www.sje-oxford.org/events