Love and Loss: music for countertenor and lute

Sunday 22 June, 9.00pm

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Alexander Chance
Toby Carr

Images: Alexander Chance © Benjamin Ealovega; Toby Carr © Peter Mould

Alexander Chance, countertenor; Toby Carr, lute.

Alexander Chance is widely regarded as a leader among the recent generation of British countertenors. He made his stage debut in 2021 as Oberon in Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Grange Festival, and became the first countertenor to win the International Handel Singing Competition in 2022. His operatic career now flourishes alongside an acclaimed solo career. For this recital he joins with leading lutenist Toby Carr to explore the heights and depths of emotion in a wide-ranging programme of songs of love and loss from composers including John Dowland, Thomas Campion, Henry Purcell and John Blow.

Described by Gramophone Magazine as staking serious claim to ‘the title of his generation’s most exciting British countertenor’, Alexander is acclaimed for his interpretation of renaissance lute songs. Followers of the countertenor repertoire may well be familiar with Alexander’s father Michael Chance, and will surely want to hear Alexander’s exciting entry into this field. Toby Carr’s lute playing has been described as ‘sensuous and vivid’ (The Guardian), ‘Eloquent’ (BBC Music Magazine) and ‘Mesmerising’ (Opera Today). He performs with most of the principal period instrument ensembles in the UK and beyond, as well as with many symphony orchestras, opera companies and ballet companies.

This performance will take place by candlelight at the East end of Thaxted Church.

‘The countertenor Alexander Chance, as the gold-suited Voice of Apollo, shone visually and vocally’ Fiona Maddocks, The Observer, March 2024

This concert is sponsored by friends of Thaxted Festival who wish to remain anonymous.

Venue: Thaxted Parish Church
Tickets: £22 unreserved. Age 30 and under: £10.

“[The Tippett Quartet] concert as part of the 2023 Thaxted Festival revealed a group of musicians of profound interpretative depth, and capable of traversing a wide range of repertoire.”
Colin Clarke, Classical Explorer
“A positively life-enhancing performance of Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love in English with reduced ensemble by Wild Arts…”
Colin Clarke, Classical Explorer
“The performance was a joy … and the quartet brought out its sense of both structural and linear perfection.” Holst’s Phantasy Quartet Op 36 performed by the Tippett Quartet.
Colin Clarke, Classical Explorer
“The Tippett Quartet and Emma Abbate have performed Schumann’s Piano Quintet together many times. On this occasion they combined flawless execution with instinctive – and utterly engaging – musicianship.”
Claire Seymour, in Seen and Heard International.
“…this was a wonderfully enjoyable and engaging performance that really punched above its weight. The audience in Thaxted clearly loved it and were fully engaged, whilst this experienced reviewer was carried away as well.”
Wild Art’s production of The Elixir of Love, reviewed by Robert Hugill in Planet Hugill
“2 terrific concerts I heard with London Mozart Players.”
Thaxted Festival concertgoer
“I think Gustav is smiling down to see how his memory and that of his best friend and colleague Ralph Vaughan Williams are honoured by the expertly played pieces they both composed.”
Thaxted Festival concertgoer
“It's always the variety and quality which keeps me coming back.”
Thaxted Festival concertgoer
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