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UNVEILED Britten | Tippett | Gipps | Browne | Thomas

In Jeremy Sams’ new English-language singing version of Britten’s Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, the passionate sentiments are liberated from the safe historical distance of the Italian Renaissance and unveiled in a way that was not possible in 1940, when Britten wrote the cycle – his first for his partner Peter Pears.

Tenor Elgan Llŷr Thomas presents it alongside Michael Tippett’s equally ardent Songs for Achilles and a short item by W. Denis Browne, a close friend of the poet Rupert Brooke, as well as premiere recordings of four Brooke settings by Ruth Gipps and a new song-cycle by Thomas himself, to poems by Andrew McMillan.

Tackling themes of love, shame, acceptance, war and death, the programme traverses a history of male homosexuality from necessary discretion to the (relatively) liberated present.

Thanks to prolific careers both as pianist and award-winning broadcaster, Iain Burnside is one of the UK’s best known musicians.

Iain has worked with a huge number of international singers, notably Dame Margaret Price, Rosa Feola, Ailish Tynan, Joyce DiDonato, Laurence Brownlee, Roderick Williams, and Bryn Terfel, among many others. He has recorded more than 60 CDs, often created around neglected composers, where his curatorial skills are displayed to the full. He is a great champion of young singers, playing a crucial role in introducing them to a wider audience. This year he has taken on an additional role, as founding member of Trio Balthasar, alongside violinist Michael Foyle and cellist Tim Hugh.

Innovative programme planning has led Iain to expand his concert work into a hybrid form of music theatre, creating staged work around Brahms (Shining Armour), Wagner (The View from the Villa) and Gurney (A Soldier and a Maker). He has broadcast extensively on both radio and TV, notably as host of BBC R3’s acclaimed Voices series. In addition to a long association with London’s Guildhall School, Iain is Visiting International Artist at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin. He is Artistic Director of the Ludlow English Song Weekend and Artistic Consultant to Grange Park Opera, Surrey.

Described by BBC Music Magazine as "A worthy successor to Julian Bream", Australian born guitarist Craig Ogden is one of the most exciting artists of his generation. He studied guitar from the age of seven and percussion from the age of thirteen. In 2004, he became the youngest instrumentalist to receive a Fellowship Award from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. One of the UK’s most recorded guitarists, he has accumulated an acclaimed discography for Chandos, Virgin/EMI, Nimbus, Hyperion, Sony and six chart-topping albums for Classic FM. His most recent recordings are a solo recital disc for Chandos, Craig Ogden in Concert and a new arrangement of the Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach with violinist David Juritz and cellist Tim Hugh for Nimbus Records.

Craig Ogden has performed concertos with many of the world’s leading orchestras in countries including Latvia, Russia, South Africa, Denmark, Spain, Sweden, Germany and Australia. In recent seasons he has performed with the Hallé, BBC Concert Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra (Spain), Darwin Symphony Orchestra (Australia) Spanish Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra (Dublin), London Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra, Orchestra of Opera North and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. This season Craig performs concertos with orchestras including the BBC Concert Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Oulu Symphony Orchestra (Finland) and the Northern Chamber Orchestra.

Numerous composers have written works specially for him and in 2017 he gave the world premiere of a concerto written for him by Andy Scott with the Northern Chamber Orchestra at Stoller Hall, Manchester, followed by the Australian premiere in Perth.  He gave the world premiere of ‘Il Filo’, a double concerto for guitar and accordion by David Gordon with Miloš Milivojević in summer 2019 and gave the world premiere of a concerto written for him by David Knotts in March 2022 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London with the BBC Concert Orchestra which was recorded for BBC Radio 3 and filmed for BBC4 TV and currently available on BBC iplayer. In July 2022, Craig will give the world premiere of ‘Isolation Songs (Without Words)’ a new guitar concerto written for him by William Lovelady with the English Chamber Orchestra.