Given before an invited audience in the Colston Hall , Bristol
First Concert-Part 2
The BBC Orchestra
(Section B)
Leader, Paul Beard
Conductor, Sir Adrian Boult
Sophie Wyss (soprano)
SOPHIE WYSS AND ORCHESTRA
Les Illuminations (A setting of prose poems from ' Les Illuminations ' by Arthur Rimbaud )
Benjamin Britten
(First broadcast performance of complete cycle)
1 Fanfare. 2 Villes. 3a Phrase.
3b Antique. 4 Royaute. 5 Marine. 6 Interlude. 7 Being beauteous. 8 Parade. 9 Depart
Sophie Wyss was born near Neuchatel, on the borders of French-speaking and German-speaking Switzerland, and in consequence she has a wide repertoire of German lieder and French songs. She is also able to sing with perfect understanding in English, Italian, Spanish, and Russian. She studied at the Geneva Conservatoire and made her debut as Eurydice in Gluck's Orpheus and Eurydice. Since her marriage to an Englishman, she has settled in England.
She is particularly interested in the works of the younger school of British song-writers, among whom are Benjamin Britten. Alan Raws -thorne. Walter Leigh , Lennox Berke ley. Elizabeth Maconchy , and Elizabeth Lutyens. All the vocal works of Benjamin Britten have been written for her, the first of which is the song cycle ' Our Hunting Fathers '.