Join bass-baritone Michael Ronan and pianist Harry Rylance, both Musicians’ Company award winners and graduates of the Royal Academy of Music, for a programme that traverses the landscapes of death and existence. Brahms’ Four Serious Songs, written shortly before the composer’s death, is a meditation on mortality and sets the stage for introspection – the texts are taken from the Luther Bible, despite Brahms being an atheist. Wagner/Liszt’s Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde follows with its transcendent expression of love’s ultimate sacrifice. Concluding the journey, Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death offers a haunting expression of mortality through vivid narratives – each song telling a story with Death being personified and appearing for the inevitable dance with destiny.

Michael Ronan & Harry Rylance
Lunchtime Concert
Lunchtime Concert Series
Smith Square Hall
- Repertoire & Programme highlights
Richard Wagner ‘Isolde’s Liebestod’ from Tristan und Isolde
- Bass-baritone
- Michael Ronan
- Piano
- Harry Rylance
- Duration
- 55 minutes
- No interval
- Price
Full programme
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Johannes Brahms
Vier erneste Gesänge, Op. 121
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Richard Wagner (arr. Franz Liszt)
Isolde's Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde
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Modest Mussorgsky
Songs and Dances of Death