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Iestyn Davies in Conversation

Iestyn Davies in Conversation

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Summary

Sandy Burnett talks to young British countertenor Iestyn Davies prior to his recital at Wigmore Hall on 18 November with Concerto Copenhagen, which opens the Art of the Countertenor series.

Successive concerts in this series include Bejun Mehta on 9 December 2009 with Julius Drake, and David Daniels with John Lenehan on 21 February 2010.

The Art of the Countertenor will continue into the 2010/11 season with performances from Lawrence Zazzo, Philippe Jaroussky and Andreas Scholl.

Music Clips

Musical excerpts are taken from Iestyn Davies’s forthcoming recording with Wigmore Hall Live, which will be released in September 2010:

1. Buxtehude Jubilate Domino
2. Purcell ‘What a sad, sad Fate is mine?’
3. Handel Nine German Arias - ‘Die ihr aus dunkeln Grüften’ HWV 208
4. Handel Nine German Arias – ‘Flammende Rose, Zierde der Erden’, HWV 210

The Art of the Countertenor

It was the great Alfred Deller who led the resurgence of the countertenor (or ‘male alto’) from the 1940s onwards, a movement that went hand-in-hand with a revival of interest in early music.

The mantle was later taken up by James Bowman and Michael Chance, among others, and has resulted in the past 15 years in a flourishing array of countertenors who have risen to the role’s technical and musical challenges.

Wigmore Hall’s Art of the Countertenor series presents some of today’s leading countertenors in repertoire that covers English Renaissance songs, Italian Baroque arias and Classical cantatas

Credits

• Presented by Sandy Burnett
• Co-produced by Artsaudio and Helen Peate
• Edited by Darius Weinberg