OXFORD SONG is the new title of Oxford Lieder, reflecting the annual two-week festival’s ever-expanding repertory and breaking out of the German art-song niche indicated by its previous name. Not that it has been in any way confined to niche repertory: under the guidance of its inspirational founding director, Sholto Kynoch, it has developed steadily in scope and ambition, attracting new audiences as well as managing to keep its existing devotees happy—no mean feat.
He devises programmes and follows themes with a light touch and has an unerring instinct for making connections, teasing out surprising and unexpected links, working with exceptional musicians, both experienced and newer to the scene. The 400th anniversaries of William Byrd and William Shakespeare’s First Folio, the Mendelssohn family, the Tribulations of love and Picasso’s Guernica, represent only a handful of themes.
Day of fragrance
October 14 is a day of typically eclectic, imaginative Kynochery. Dedicated to Fashion and Song, it starts with a morning concert inspired by Yves Saint Laurent and his designs for ballet, involves a tenor, a dancer and a pianist and finishes with the aptly named baritone Benjamin Appl giving a recital dubbed Forbidden Fruit; in between dips into the Weimar Republic, it touches on artworks by Jeanne Mammen, George Grosz and Otto Dix and, most intriguingly, offers a selection of French song under the alluring title of Parfums et Paroles, which comes with olfactory participation for the audience.
Denne historien er fra October 11, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra October 11, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds
