Song, the Secret of Eternity: Leeds Lieder Festival returns with its boldest & most colourful programme yet, celebrating its 20th anniversary

With the theme of Song, the Secret of Eternity, Leeds Lieder Festival returns from 5 to 12 April 2025 with a celebration of its 20th anniversary. Festival director Joseph Middleton describes it as "Our boldest and most colourful programme to date reflects the enduring appeal of song and its power to connect us across time and culture. With a line-up of  performers who really have something to say, and innovative programmes, this Festival celebrates life, song, and its ability to explain some of the most profound aspects of the human condition."

Two Schubert song cycles open and close the Festival, performed by two of the greatest exponents of the art form accompanied by festival director Joseph Middleton. Baritone Florian Boesch opens the week with Winterreise, while tenor Christoph Prégardien concludes with Die schöne Müllerin. Throughout the Festival, audiences will be treated to recitals by the finest British vocalists such as Alice Coote who is joined by pianist Julius Drake for their 'Rebellious Recital' which aims to challenge the very notion of the traditional song recital programme, Kitty Whately who is joined by pianist Natalie Burch for a relaxed lunchtime recital, Louise Alder who performs Mahler, and Strauss alongside Helen Grime including her Bright Travellers and the premiere of a festival commission, and Roderick Williams who with Andrew West brings 'A touch of the exotic'.

The Erda Ensemble, Marta Fontanals-Simmons (mezzo-soprano), Chloe Vincent (flute), Olivia Jageurs (harp), present an homage to women in music and brewing at North Brewing with music from Chaminade, Ina Boyle, Harriet Adie, Amy Beach, Rosy Wertheim, Grace Williams, Anne Boyd, and Roxana Panufnik. In Our People, tenor Freddie Ballantyne and pianist Kunal Lahiry present a recital which is a passion produce born out of the strife of the Black Lives Matter movement, which moves from Schubert and Purcell, through Copland, Bolcom, and Margaret Bonds to John Musto, Ricky Ian Gordon and Nina Simone.

The much-acclaimed Leeds Songbook Project offering a living portrait of the city’s artistic landscape. The project marries stories about the people of Leeds, told in poems by the people of Leeds, set to music by composers invited to Leeds, and finally, performed by Leeds Lieder Young Artists. The showcase event connects Leeds communities and creates a lasting snapshot of song writing for future generations to enjoy. 

There are masterclasses led by artists, including Festival President Elly Ameling, Sir Thomas Allen, Dame Felicity Lott, Amanda Roocroft, Julius Drake and Anna Tilbrook. A series of specially curated concerts will also highlight the next generation of musicians, including a Young Artist Showcase, Study Event based on Goethe, and a Late Night Lieder event, presenting the future of song in a relaxed and intimate setting.   

The festival's title this year comes from final song Egyptian soprano Fatma Said will sing in her eclectic programme - words by Khalil Gibran and music by Lebanese polymath Najib Hankash. The opening stanza reads: 

“Give me a flute and sing,
For song is the secret of eternity,
And the sound of the flute remains
Beyond the end of existence.” 

Full details from the festival website.

A Leeds Songbook and a showcase performance: Leeds Lieder Young Artists 2024

Leeds Lieder Young Artists 2024 at Howard Assembly Room

Composers & Poets Forum Showcase: A Leeds Songbook; Leeds Lieder Festival at Leeds Minster
Reviewed 17 April 2024

Young Artists Showcase: Leeds Lieder Festival at Howard Assembly Room
Reviewed 19 April 2024

First a programme of specially written new song and then a chance to shine in their chosen repertoire, and for us to experience some fine young voices and performers really stretching themselves.

Leeds Lieder Festival certainly keeps its Young Artists busy. They arrived in Leeds on Sunday not only have they been taking part in masterclasses and a final showcase performance at Opera North's Howard Assembly Room on 19 April 2024 when each duo performed their own selection of songs, but on 17 April 2024 at Leeds Minster they presented this year's instalment of A Leeds Songbook.

The Composers & Poets Forum Showcase at Leeds Minster on 17 April featured ten new songs by student composers collaborating with local poets to create ten further contributions to A Leeds Songbook. Each song was written for the Young Artist duo that performed it. Before each song, the poet read their words to give us more of an idea of content.

A day at Leeds Lieder Festival: Fauré, Boulanger, Mahler and more

Gabriel Fauré by John Singer Sargent, 1889

Lecture recital: Gabriel Fauré and his mélodies; Graham Johnson, Sarah Fox, Florian Störtz; Leeds Lieder Festival at The Venue, Leeds Conservatoire
Gabriel Fauré, Lili Boulanger, Mahler, Roger Quilter, Muriel Herbert; James Gilchrist, Anna Tilbrook; Leeds Lieder Festival at The Venue, Leeds Conservatoire
Reviewed 18 April 2024

A day of French song with a focus on Fauré, with Graham Johnson making us love the composer's late period, and James Gilchrist in fine form, from elegant Fauré to perfumed Boulanger, Mahler in comic mode and Roger Quilter with his heart on his sleeve

Thursday 18 April was A Day of French Song at Leeds Lieder Festival. In the morning the festival's Young Artists had a public masterclass with soprano Dame Felicity Lott concentrating on French repertoire, then at lunchtime pianist Graham Johnson was joined by soprano Sarah Fox and baritone Florian Störtz for a lecture recital on Gabriel Fauré and his mélodies, and Johnson went on join the Young Artists for a further masterclass in the afternoon. The evening recital was given by tenor James Gilchrist and pianist Anna Tilbrook with songs by Fauré and Lili Boulanger alongside those of Mahler, Roger Quilter and Muriel Herbert. Though it was perhaps unfortunate that Johnson and Gilchrist's choice of Fauré songs overlapped rather. Impressively, the whole day was live-streamed and is available to view on the festival's YouTube channel.

For the lunchtime lecture recital in The Venue, Leeds Conservatoire's handsome recital hall, Graham Johnson took an historical approach to Fauré and his mélodies (109 of them, written between 1861 and 1921), beginning with his first surviving song and working through to his last song cycle, dividing the composer's output into periods each illustrated with songs from Sarah Fox and Florian Störtz. But Johnson also explained why the songs were like they are, what makes Fauré so distinctive. Johnson deftly interwove speech and song, moving from piano to lectern and back, and his delivery was impressively succinct yet engaging and informative, with a nice ear for a well-turned, memorable phrase. By the end we felt we understood Fauré's song output a lot more and wanted to explore further, particularly the late period about which Johnson was passionate.

Engaging the audience: James Newby and Joseph Middleton in a folk-inspired programme at a cool Leeds café/bar

Leeds Lieder 2024 - Joseph Middleton, James Newby - Through the Noise at Hyde Park Book Club

Matyas Seiber, John Jacob Niles, Thomas Traill, Joseph Suder, Percy Grainger, Vaughan Williams, Britten, Ravel: Cinq Mélodies populaires grecques, Mahler: Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen; James Newby, Joseph Middleton; Leeds Lieder & Through the Noise at Hyde Park Book Club
17 April 2024

A new collaboration sees Leeds Lieder at a cool café/bar with an engaging and beautifully sung programme of songs inspired by folk-music

A former fuel storage tank is not the usual venue for a song recital, but Hyde Park Book Club is no usual venue and last night's recital there (17 April 2024) by baritone James Newby and pianist Joseph Middleton was a collaboration between Leeds Lieder (of which Middleton is the artistic director) and Through the Noise, the organisation that promotes its concerts, noisenights, via a distinctive crowdfunding model. The recital was all of folk-inspired music, from Matyas Seiber, John Jacob Niles, Thomas Traill, Joseph Suder, Percy Grainger, Vaughan Williams and Britten, plus Ravel's Cinq Mélodies populaires grecques and Mahler's Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen.

The room was small, and needed discreet amplification to provide the right sort of acoustic, but this was sensitively and naturally done. There was a magnificent grand piano, lent for the occasion and not what you usually expect to find in the basement of a café/bar! Hyde Park Book Club is a café, bar and venue based in a former petrol station, hence the former fuel storage tank. A friendly and casual upstairs bar provided refreshment and sustenance before the event and somewhere to chat to the performers afterwards.

Leeds Lieder 2024 - James Newby - Through the Noise at Hyde Park Book Club
(Photo: Tom Arber)

The event was sold out, so there was a packed, standing audience. Sight-lines were at a premium but I am assured that even from the back the sound was good and throughout the evening James Newby's diction was superb, we heard every word and if you are doing a programme inspired by folk-music then you need that. Newby built on the casual atmosphere, chatting to the audience in a way that was informative, yet entertainingly self-deprecating; I have never heard the word 'wanky' used as an adjective (to describe his explanation of the raison d'etre of the programme) on the concert platform before!