Live @Lakeside: Manchester Collective with guest Ruby Hughes (soprano)

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Minimum £10

1 hour (no interval)

Live Performance: Sunday 21 February, 3pm
Available to book and watch until Sunday 28 February (inclusive)

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Dowland Two Laments 
Tavener Akhmatova Songs, selections 
Ravel Kaddish 
Shaw Valencia 
Beethoven Cavatina from String Quartet in B flat, Op. 130 
Debussy arr. Heggie Trois Chansons de Bilitis 
Mahler ‘Urlicht’ from Symphony No.2 

Known for their experimental programming and daring collaborations, the work of Manchester Collective has expanded at breakneck speed since their formation in 2016. They now play in concert halls, warehouses and factory spaces in 18 cities across Europe and the UK, performing a combination of cutting-edge contemporary music, classical masterpieces, and staged theatrical work to a hungry, new audience. Returning for their fourth visit to Lakeside, Manchester Collective is joined by soprano Ruby Hughes for a programme of sublime music delivered with the ensemble’s inimitable flair. Described as one of the finest lyrical sopranos of the early 21st century Ruby Hughes has been praised for the graceful purity and ravishing beauty of her voice and her sensitive artistry. 

This programme of deeply moving music brings together compositions from the Renaissance to the present day. The anguished mourning of Dowland’s Laments and Ravel’s Kaddish segue to John Tavener’s stark musical settings of Anna Akhmatova’s poems depicting human suffering under the Stalinist terror. Debussy’s settings of Pierre Louÿs’ erotic Sapphic poetry finishes with a glacial representation of the Naïades (female spirits) icy tomb under a wintry sky. American composer Caroline Shaw is the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music awarded in 2017 at the age of 30. Her string quartet ‘Valencia’ was inspired by the architecture of the eponymous orange and the complexities that exist within a seemingly simple food. The concert ends with Urlicht (Primordial Light) from Mahler’s Symphony No.2 expressing the heartfelt desire for relief from ‘man’s direst need and pain’.

About the artists (click to expand)

 

Known for their experimental programming and daring collaborations, Manchester Collective have expanded at speed since 2016 performing in 18 cities across Europe and the UK. Manchester Collective is a new kind of arts organisation with an aim to create intimate and intense human experiences built around live music. From concert halls to factories, recital halls to mills, Manchester Collective perform in diverse venues allowing audiences to open their ears and listen to their fresh, contemporary and classical music. manchestercollective.co.uk Image: Co-founders Rakhi Singh (L) and Adam Szabo (R); Image credit: Robin Clewley

Ruby Hughes began her musical studies as a cellist graduating from the Guildhall School of Music in London. She went on to study voice at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Munich and the Royal College of Music, London, graduating in 2009. Hughes is now a holder of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, shortlisted for a 2014 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award and has won both First Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2009 London Handel Singing Competition and a former BBC New Generation Artist. In the UK she has performed major roles with English National Opera, Garsington Opera, The Opera Group, Music Theatre Wales and Scottish Opera. She also appeared in Sir Jonathan Miller’s acclaimed production of the St Matthew Passion at the National Theatre. rubyhughes.com Image credit: Barry Hale

PART OF CONCERT SERIES IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THEATRE ROYAL AND ROYAL CONCERT HALL. 

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Photo credit: Vic Frankowski

This performance has been made possible through a grant from the Cultural Recovery Fund from the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.