City Music Foundation Lunchtime Concert Series – Caroline Taylor “Secrets and Sighs”

Soprano Caroline Taylor and internationally acclaimed collaborative pianist – and CMF Patron – Roger Vignoles give a recital at the ornate Goldsmiths’ Hall. Positioned at the junction of Foster Lane and Gresham Street in the City of London, the Hall is the third one on the site, completed in 1835, and constructed on the same spot which has been home to the Goldsmiths’ Company since 1339.

Of the programme, Caroline Taylor explains “Having always loved Strauss’ setting of Clemens Brentano’s poems, I wanted the core of this programme to be his Opus 68. To me, Strauss’ music perfectly matches the beautiful and bizarre words of Brentano, meandering through fields of talking flowers, starry nights and bumping into Cupid en route.”

“Roger then suggested a collection of Schubert songs, all portraying love – some from afar, some in secret, some in clear and present adoration. We return to themes of nature too; the nightingale singing and breezes of longing wafting across desert sands

“We both wanted to include a contemporary setting and chose Jonathan Dove’s Five Am’rous Sighs, which employs poetry by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Matthew Prior. Each song feels like a poignant vignette of a moment in time.”