Lied can Fly

Removal and Other Powers - Natalie Burch / William Marsey

When countries are shaking under political turbulences, music can reflect our situation in an intimate way. In the middle of Brexit and the Windrush Scandal, the pianist Natalie Burch commissioned a work to the composer William Marsey - and he took the House of Commons Bill 110 (2013-14) as a text for an art song.

The Little That Was Once A Man - Nathan Williamson & James Gilchrist

The poet Bryan Heiser suffered with polio from a young age, never descending into self-pity in his writing. In collaboration with James Gilchrist, composer and pianist Nathan Williamson has created a stunning collection of Heiser settings, bursting with physicality, intimacy and irony.

An die Musik - Tom Lane

Rainer Maria Rilke is celebrating his 150th Birthday on the 4th of December and, without thinking about Birthday parties, I recorded an interview with the German-British composer Tom Lane. Enjoy listening to this amazing poem about music itself, set into music.

Blessed be III - Michael Finnissy & Lotte Betts-Dean

Working together can become a blessing for a composer as well as a singer. If creating is a form of being, it becomes a present to ourselves. Sabine Bergk talks with Michael Finnissy and Lotte Betts-Dean about the creative process, of truly becoming the composition and about the blessing of existing together through music.

Lingering Music - Thomas Pitfield

Discovering British Art Song is like taking turns and twists in undulating landscapes. Sabine Bergk talks with James Gilchrist and Nathan Williamson about the variety of the songs of Thomas Pitfield, an exceptional composer, poet, painter and peace activist (1903-1999). In Pitfield's songs, the beauty of the moment shines through delicate lines of shadows and light. In many songs, the poem and the composition originate from the same feather - Pitfield worked as his own singer songwriter, ahead of the times.