Baritone Robert Gildon and pianist Nathan Williamson gave a performance of Suffolk’s Songs – a recital of works inspired by the sounds, landscape and stories of Suffolk – at one of the county’s unofficial ‘capitals’, Bury St. Edmund’s.
Nathan’s song-cycle Grey and Green are all my Light was showcased, with writer Robert Jellicoe reading his texts (in beautiful lilting Suffolk dialect) prior to the performance.
Other composers featured included Martin Shaw (whose 150th birthday is celebrated this year), Imogen Holst, Benjamin Britten, Doreen Carwithen, EJ Moeran, as well as Ralph Vaughan Williams and George Butterworth, whose collection of Southwold folk songs and dances from 1911 strongly influenced Nathan’s new work.