Words & music: at Oxford International Song Festival's opening weekend academics & performers combine for Defining Love

Defining Love
Emily Pillinger, Stephanie Oade, Fiona Macintosh, Elenora Pertz, Valerie Eickhoff
Holywell Music Room, Oxford International Song Festival

Defining Love: Satie, Schindler-Mahler, Britten, Schumann, Korngold, Faure, Schubert, Strauss, Mozart, Rodgers & Hart; Valerie Eickhoff, Elenora Pertz, Fiona Macintosh, Stephanie Oade, Emily Pillinger; Oxford International Song Festival at Holywell Music Room
Reviewed 10 October 2026

A colloquium on approaches to love in Ancient Greece combined with a delightful mix of songs expressing the subject to create and intriguing mix of words and music

This year's Oxford International Song Festival has the theme of Love Songs, and the subject of love was to the fore in the afternoon event on the first Saturday of the festival, 10 October 2026, at Holywell Music Room. Defining Love combined a colloquium between three academics, Fiona Macintosh, Stephanie Oade and Emily Pillinger - Fiona Mackintosh is Emeritus Professor of Classical Reception, at Oxford Stephanie Oade is an academic, teacher and former professional cellist, Emily Pillinger is Reader in Classics and Interdisciplinary Humanities at King's College London

We heard songs by Saties, Alma Schindler-Mahler, Britten, Schumann, Korngold, Faure, Schubert, Strauss, Mozart and Rodgers & Hart performed by mezzo-soprano Valerie Eickhoff and pianist Elenora Pertz.

We began with song, a delightful account of Satie's Je te veux with Eickhoff's fragile yet plangent line combining with Pertz's subtle piano to create a real sense of dance.

The sung programme was divided according to the various Greek types of love - Eros, Storge, Pragma, Mania, Philia and Ludus Philautia. These would each be discussed but first our speakers made some general points. Western art has been steeped in the classics since the Renaissance so it is inevitable that composers' ideas about love are influenced by this. But in the pre-Christian era all manner of love was permitted, much of this policed in the Christian era so it is unhelpful to simply project ourselves onto Ancient Greek culture.

We have information about song in Ancient Greece, but though we know what words were sung and often by whom and why, the music of Ancient Greece remains silent to us. Subjects touched upon in discussion included the same-sex context for much wooing and courting, and sexual violence.

Eros represents erotic passion and suggesting this we had Alma Schindler-Mahler's Laue sommernacht and Britten's Johnny from the Cabaret Songs. The Schindler-Mahler had recitative-like narrative with Eickhoff delighting in the storytellling, whilst Britten's song was given with real relish.

Storge is the love non-romantic relationships and family. In many ways Storge was the 'good' female emotion, contrastinging with Mania, the 'bad'. An indication of what women should and shouldn't be. For Storge we heard An meinem Herzen from Schumann's Frauenliebe und -leben and Korngold's Liebesbriefchen. The Schumann was urgent, bubbling with overflowing emotion, then the Korngold was simple and moving in a performance that was controlled and intense. Korngold's languaged hinted at the better known Die tote Stadt.

Pragma is married love, that of Andromache and Hector for instance. One interesting point was the whilst good women might seem to have been rarely celebrated in antiquity, the preponderance of tomb stones doing just that tells a different story. We heard Faure's Au bord de l'eau and Schubert's Nähe des Geliebten. The Faure was undertated with supple and subtle line, then Schubert's song had an engaging sense of intimacy and personality.

Mania represents the dnagerous dimension of love, complete loss of self-control as represented in the tragedies. There is also the element of anxiety: acknowledging the power of the gods and the danger of giving up on our power to act rationally (for instance Medea and Hippolitus). In Schubert's song Der zürnenden Diana, Acteon knows what is coming and does not care. This was followed by Schubert's Gretchen am Spinnrade. Der zürnenden Diana paired Pertz's urgent piano with Eickhoff bringing out a sense of anticipation and almost relish. Like Schubert's Ganymede, in some ways the song demonstrates a slightly curious approach to what in the 19th century would be a dodgy situation. Gretchen am Spinnrade was disreet and controlled, with a slow build towards the climax on 'Kuss' and then real intensity until dying at the end.

Philia places us in a more familiar zone, rooted in friendship, with relationships that remove the element of desire such as affection and friendship. We heard Richard Strauss's Freundliche Vision, Mozart's Abendempfindung and Britten's arrangement of The Last Rose of Summer. Richard Strauss's song came over as an intimate narrative, with Eickhoff giving it an engaging simplicity. Mozart's Abendempfindung had a calm beauty to it, making sense of what are actually very sentimental words! There was an artlessness to Eickhoff's performance. Britten's arrangement had a quiet simpliticy that combined with the rather dark, disturbing thrumming in the piano. The last verse became more urgent with the piano almost threatening.

Finally we considered the more playful Ludus - Philautia. And the song contribution concluded with a lovely rendition of Rodgers and Hart's The Lady is a Tramp.

One of the enticing things about Oxford Song's programmes is the way that artistic director Sholto Kynoch manages to mix music with an academic strand out of the univeristy. Defining Love was a fascinating idea, the mix of words and music trying to highlight how Ancient Greek philosophies wound their way around the song repertoire. The discussion could perhaps have done to be a little more structured and, as it was, it was only towards the end that the discussions became more profitable. Valerie Eickhoff and Elenora Pertz's performances were always engaginging on-point, though it would have been nice if they were more involved in the whole event, rather than coming over as the cabaret spot! 

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