Sir Arthur Bliss Celebration
Recital Hall, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire
200 Jennens Road, B4 7XR
£5 morning (10:15 - 12:30)
£10 afternoon (1:15 - 4:00)
£10 evening (7pm)
OR
Wheelchair users are entitled to concessionary priced tickets with a complimentary companion seat.
Assistance dogs are welcome at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire venues. If you wish to bring an assistance dog or wheelchair, please let the Events Office know by calling 0121 331 5909.
Arthur Bliss, portrait by Mark Gertler, 1932. National Portrait Gallery.
Sir Arthur Bliss Celebration
A day of celebration to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the death of one of this country’s leading composers.
As Master of the Queen’s Music, Bliss composed numerous works for State and Ceremonial occasions, but his major works also challenged the expectations of the Establishment and have contributed an enduring legacy.
With help from leading writers, critics and performers, Bliss’s current reputation is examined and reappraised in a day’s journey of discovery, contradiction and enlightenment.
All events in the Recital Hall, except*
Day tickets - £20. Book Now.
10.15-11am
Richard Whitehouse, critic of Gramophone Magazine, examines Metamorphic Variations and Colour Symphony as part of Bliss’s symphonic legacy.
11.30am - 12.30pm - One composer to another…
Internationally renowned composer and Bliss Society President, Ian Venables, considers Bliss’s place in twentieth-century British music in conversation with David Salter, chairman of the Bliss Society.
Morning tickets £5
1.15pm- 2pm - Bliss Piano Quartet and John Ireland Songs
The early lyricism of Bliss’s Piano Quartet is complimented by a selection of John Ireland’s Songs and a rare chance to hear two of Bliss’s short vocal Nursery Rhymes.
Performers include:
Chu-Yu Yang violin, Chian Chian Hsu cello, Rebecca Watson piano, Bianca Vancea piano, Maria Willsher soprano and Maria João Antunes viola.
2pm - 2.40pm
Dr. Ben Earle from the University of Birmingham discusses his work on Miracle in the Gorbals with Chairman of the Bliss Trust, Andrew Burn.
3pm - 4pm
Andrew Burn introduces a performance of Bliss’s seminal Viola Sonata, coupled with Britten’s Lachrymae.
David Aspin viola
Robert Markham piano
*7pm - The Bradshaw Hall
A rare performance of Bliss’s Violin Concerto from Chu-Yu Yang violin and Charles Matthews piano. Also Bliss’s early and late works for solo piano, Masks (1924) and Triptych (1971) from Mark Bebbington piano.
The concert will be introduced by Paul Spicer, whose recently published biography of Bliss, Standing out from the Crowd, has been garnering rave reviews.
Hosted with the Arthur Bliss Trust and Society.