I: AUDEN to BUSONI

In turning the pages of any dictionary, the juxtapositions can offer stark contrasts, as well as serendipitous neighbours. Here the imaginary travels of Baudelaire and of Beethoven stylistically collide; Berg’s Nightingale and Irving Berlin’s Piano are both in fine fettle, as are Berlioz’s Harp and Bizet’s Guitar; William Blake and Brahms are both in a dark nocturnal mood. Britten and Robert Burns clasp hands in cross-border collaboration.

II: BUTTERWORTH to EISLER

The wartime bereavement implied in ‘The lads in their hundreds’ by Butterworth is amplified by the various sad losses of Byron, Caplet, Chabrier and Chausson. Copland and Cornelius both find themselves in heaven. Noel Coward’s world-weariness is upstaged by Debussy’s ‘Spleen’; ghosts of past and unsuccessful love affairs rustle across the stage. Eichendorff’s sad poem of a weeping bride is in strong contrast to Eisler’s setting to music of a newspaper’s lonely heart adverts.