Leeds Lieder Festival: Lunchtime Recital: Poèmes pour Mi

Siobhan Stagg (soprano)
Joseph Middleton (piano)

Messiaen - Poèmes pour Mi
Strauss - Four Last Songs

Early in Siobhan Stagg’s career, Christa Ludwig described her voice as ‘one of the most beautiful I’ve ever heard.’ As word of her talent spread across Europe, Siobhan’s big break came in January 2015 when she was chosen to step-in for Brahms’ Requiem with Christian Thielemann and the Berlin Philharmonic. Siobhan was subsequently praised in the press for her ‘heavenly vocal qualities’, ‘reminiscent of the incomparable Gundula Janowitz.’ Recent performances have seen Siobhan triumph at the Royal Opera House, Salzburg, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and at the BBC Proms. Her voice is a perfect foil for Messiaen’s rarely performed, spiritual cycle Poèmes pour Mi, songs written for his fi rst wife as a hymn to a couple’s inseparability and with texts based on the New Testament. Alongside this masterpiece we hear the soaring Four Last Songs of Richard Strauss.

Siobhan Stagg is a touching and musically delicious discovery... the young Australian is the next big thing

Joseph Middleton: rightful heir to that legendary accompanist Gerald Moore