Little Elegy: A Recital of Art Song
i The Twilight People, ii A Piper
Seamus O'Sullivan (1879–1958) was an Irish poet and editor of The Dublin Magazine. With its straightforward language and direct imagery, his poetry was attractive to composers, particularly his most popular poem 'The Piper'
i Little Elegy, ii Love, iii Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Little Elegy (1949) depicts the bleakness of life when there is no love. "Love" is an enchanting, lyrical art song set to poetry of Thomas Lodge. "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" sets text of Robert Frost.
"Song of the Stream" is the first track in the 6 Songs, Op. 25 collection composed by the British classical composer Roger Quilter between 1921 and 1927.
"Three Roses" is a classical English art song for voice and piano composed by John Jeffreys, set to the poem "A White Rose" by John Boyle O'Reilly.
Written in 1920, it sets an anonymous ancient Greek text and belongs to Howells' early catalog of secular vocal music.
i The Moor, ii To Sincerity, iii Epitaph
Milford's writing shows strongly the influence of Vaughan Williams.
"Down by the Salley Gardens" is an art song composed by Anglo-American composer Rebecca Clarke in 1919, featuring text from the famous poem by William Butler Yeats. Written in a folk-song style, it captures a nostalgic and melancholic reflection on youth and lost love.
i Im wunderschönen Monat Mai, ii Aus meinen Tränen sprießen, iv Wenn ich in deine Augen seh, vii Ich grolle nicht
Dichterliebe, A Poet's Love (composed 1840), is the best-known song cycle by Robert Schumann (Op. 48). The texts for its 16 songs come from the Lyrisches Intermezzo by Heinrich Heine, written in 1822–23 and published as part of Heine's Das Buch der Lieder.
William Denis Browne was a British composer, pianist, organist and music critic of the early 20th century. He and his close friend, poet Rupert Brooke, were commissioned into the Royal Naval Division together shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. Denis Browne was killed in action during the Gallipoli Campaign.
i Let me enjoy the earth, ii In years defaced, iii The Market-Girl, iv I look into my glass, v It never looks like summer, vi At a Lunar Eclipse
This Finzi song is set to Hardy, and share the poet's preoccupation with the passing preciousness of dreams, the transience of life and death itself.
Oliver Morrell & Will Sims (Vocal/Piano Duo)
Oliver Morrell is a versatile young musician with a diverse portfolio of performing and teaching. He graduated in 2021 with first-class honours from Durham University, and has been awarded performance diplomas from the Royal College of Organists and the London College of Music. Since September 2024, he has been Sub-Organist at Winchester Cathedral. As part of this role, he plays the organ for daily services, regularly conducts the Cathedral Choir, and plays a part in training the choristers. Before moving to Winchester, Oliver successively held organist positions at Durham Cathedral, Croydon Minster, and St Albans Cathedral. His playing has been described as “very reliable” (Cathedral Music), and he recently featured on the St Albans Cathedral Choirs’ recording of music by Elizabeth Poston (Naxos 8.574576) and Philip Moore (First Hand Records 170).
Oliver gained formative musical training as a chorister; first at his local parish church, and then at the King’s Chapel of the Savoy. From school, he went on to spend a year singing in the choir at Gloucester Cathedral. As a singer, he frequently offers recitals and is called upon to deputise in professional choirs. He is also a keen composer and has had his music premiered at the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music.
Will Sims is the Director of Chapel Music at Robinson College, Cambridge, where he directs the Choir for their weekly service schedule and busy concert, touring, and recording calendar, and supervises undergraduates in the Faculty of Music. In this role, he has directed the Choir’s first three commercial recordings (Convivium & Prima Facie Records) to critical acclaim, led worship in the Thomaskirche and Sagrada Família, broadcast a concert live from the Duomo di Milano, and given over fifteen premierés. Prior to this, Will was the Director of Music at University College, Durham; his recording of Durufle’s Requiem (Priory Records) is regularly broadcast on Radio 3’s Essential Classics. He is a prize-winning Choral Director of the Royal College of Organists, and was an inaugural member of the Yale Sacred Music Academy.
Will is an experienced singer has sung in the Cathedral Choirs of Ely, Edinburgh, Lincoln, and Peterborough; he has recorded for Delphian Records and broadcast across BBC Radio and Television. He has accompanied recitals of English Song around the UK, including in the Edinburgh and Cambridge Festivals, and will make his first recordings of Howells, Downes, and Milford in 2026. His compositions have been performed across Europe and regularly premiered in The London Festival of Contemporary Church Music.
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