Song-cycle:
The Heart's Assurance
Oh, journeyman (Alun Lewis ); The heart's assurance (Sidney Keyes ); Compassion (Alun Lewis ); The dancer (Alun Lewis ); Remember your lovers (Sidney Keyes ) sung by Peter Pears (tenor) withMewton-Wood (piano)
Alun Lewis and Sidney Keyes , the two poets Michael Tippett has drawn upon for his song-cycle, were both killed in the last war; and the general theme of the. work is ' Love under the shadow of death.' The song-cycle, which has an elaborate piano part, was first performed on May 7, 1951, by Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten , at the first of the series of six public recitals of English song given by the BBC at the Wigmore Hall as part of the London Festival of the Arts.
H.R.