Recital:
Carola Emrich-Fisher – mezzo-soprano
Paul Ellis-Howe – piano

The Programme

Carola Emrich-Fisher – mezzo-soprano
Paul Ellis-Howe – piano

Sechs Lieder, Op 13
1. Ich stand in dunkeln Träumen
2. Sie liebten sich beide
3. Die Liebe sass als Nachtigall
4. Der Mond kommt still gegangen
5. Ich hab’ in deinem Auge
6. Die stille Lotosblume

Within Thy Heart
Le Secret
The Blackbird
Empress of the Night
Ecstasy

The Artists

Carola Emrich-Fisher sings, and has performed, a wide range of repertoire including operatic roles, cantata solos and art songs. She has performed and been broadcast in America, the UK and Europe.

Paul Ellis-Howe is a London-based pianist, arranger, teacher and examiner. He is particularly interested in working with other musicians as chamber music partners and accompanying singers. Carola and Paul became professionally acquainted through their membership of the London Art Song Group, Serenata, where Carola regularly performs and Paul is Artistic Director. They enjoy performing not only works from the standard repertoire but also the music of long-forgotten and often overlooked composers.

Clara Schumann (1819-1896)
Widely regarded as one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era, Clara Schumann’s concert career spanned more than sixty years. Her compositions include many piano pieces, songs, chamber music and a piano concerto premiered under the baton of Felix Mendelssohn. After her marriage to the composer Robert Schumann in 1840 she turned, to some extent, away from writing for the piano and towards Lieder and choral works. These six songs are a setting of the romantic poems of Heine, Geibel and Ruckert. Written in the first weeks of her nuptials, the songs convey the intimacy of the first blissful season of marriage.

Amy Beach (1867-1944)
Amy Beach was the first successful female American composer of large scale music. Her Gallic Symphony, premiered in 1896, was the first symphony composed and published by an American woman. In addition she was an accomplished and acclaimed pianist who, similarly to Cécile Chaminade, primarily gave concerts featuring her own works. Although her music is mostly in a Romantic vein, the Five Songs in today’s programme are an example of how she came, later in her career, to experiment with more exotic harmonies.