Hugh Cutting & George Ireland

Experience the expansive range of vocal music, from Baroque arias to specially commissioned contemporary works.

Hugh Cutting, the first countertenor to win the Kathleen Ferrier Award, joins celebrated pianist George Ireland for a thrillingly eclectic recital that journeys across countries, genres and centuries. Flexing his voice beyond the baroque era, Cutting surprises at every turn.

Operatic arias, from Claudio Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea (1643) to George Benjamin’s Written on Skin (2012), mingle with Lieder by Franz Schubert and Hugh Wolf. The French Belle Époque (Beautiful Era) is represented with songs by Ernest Chausson, Reynaldo Hahn and Gabriel Fauré; while Girolamo Frescobaldi’s Se l’aura tutta vezzosa returns us to 17th-century Italy.

The recital also features lesser-known composers like Betty Roe, alongside new commissions, including Piers Connor Kennedy’s electrifying Rough Rhymes, written for Cutting’s voice.

Monteverdi E pur io torno from L'incoronazione di Poppea
Howard So by my singing
Mussorgsky Impromptu passioné
Schubert Ganymed
Wolf Herr, was trägt der Boden hier’ from Spanisches Liederbuch
Handel 'Frà le stragi' from Alessandro
Debussy 'Des pas sur la neige' from Préludes Book 1
Betty Roe 'To God' from Noble Numbers
George Benjamin This says the Angel’ from Written on Skin
Fauré Cygne sur l’eau’ from Mirages
Vaughan Williams Linden Lea
Vaughan Williams 'IV. Slow Air' and 'V Rondo' from Suite of Six Short Pieces
Hahn À Chloris
Frescobaldi Se l'aura spira tutta vezzosa
Howells Come Sing and Dance
Grainger Irish Tune from County Derry
Piers Connor Kennedy: extracts from Rough Rhymes including Wait’, Two Worlds’ and Trees’

Sung in English, French, German and Italian with English subtitles