An Evening of Song at St Catharine’s

I’m very happy to be returning to St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, for an evening recital as part of the Kellaway Concerts series.

This time, the programme takes me into the world of song — and into four very different musical languages.

We will begin with Gerald Finzi’s Let Us Garlands Bring, three settings of Shakespeare from a cycle which seems to me to capture something particularly English: intimate, understated, sometimes playful, but with a strong sense of the words always at the centre.

From there we move to Benjamin Britten and his 7 Sonnets of Michelangelo, one of the great twentieth-century song cycles. The contrast is striking: the language changes, the atmosphere becomes more intense, and the extraordinary poetry of Michelangelo is placed against music of remarkable concentration and emotional directness.

The second half brings together songs by Gustav Mahler and Franz Liszt. Mahler’s selections from Des Knaben Wunderhorn move between humour, melancholy and something much darker, while Liszt’s three Sonetti del Petrarca return us to Italian poetry — and to Petrarch’s very particular world of love, longing and desire.

It is quite a journey, from Shakespeare to Michelangelo, from German folk poetry to Petrarch, and from Finzi to Liszt. What connects all these works, though, is the extraordinary importance they give to the relationship between words and music.

I’ll be performing with Patrick Hemmerlé, and it will be a particular pleasure to share this programme in the beautiful surroundings of St Catharine’s.

The recital is part of the Kellaway Concerts series at St Catharine’s College, which brings professional musicians and a wide range of chamber music to the College.

I hope you can join us for an evening of song.

Evening Song Recital
6 November 2026, 6:00pm
St Catharine’s College, Cambridge

Alessandro Cortello, tenor
Patrick Hemmerlé, piano

Info and tickets here.