‘Voices’
Talia Lieberman—soprano
Michael Haslam—piano
The concert was programmed with Michael Haslam, Director of Music at St James’s, working together with Harrison Knights. Both Talia and Harrison are current Music Scholars at St James’s.
Talia and Michael will perform a programme of songs spanning the years from the consecration of St James’s Church in 1684 to the present including words and music by Henry Purcell, George Frideric Handel, William Blake, Jean Anouilh, Francis Poulenc, Richard Rogers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick, Robert Schumann, Stephen Schwartz, Richard Wilbur and Leonard Bernstein, that will shine a light on the relationship between architecture, music and poetry.
In some cases, the connection between the music and the architecture of St James’s is clear. For example, the works of Purcell and Handel was contemporaneous to the emergence of Wren’s style of architecture with it’s light, open spaces and different acoustics to what had existed before and, indeed, Handel played the historic organ at St James’s. Or, on the words side, there is William Blake, who was baptised in the church. The song by Poulenc, evokes the wartime experience of the church and its congregation when the St James’s was badly bombed during the Blitz. But, in all these works, from music that was fashionable in the 17th century when the church first opened its doors (including the original South Door) right through to works by 20th-century composers who became well known for their hit Broadway and West End musicals, the interface between music, poetry and architecture runs through the programme as a red thread.
