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World Premiere of Ryan Wigglesworth's Vignettes de Jules Renard at the Barbican

Mar. 09, 2022

British baritone Roderick Williams and pianist Andrew West performed the world premiere of Ryan Wigglesworth's Vignettes de Jules Renard on March 8 at the Barbican. The work was premiered as part of a concert celebrating birds and other creatures, and featured Gabriel Fauré's Mirages and Maurice Ravel's Histoire Naturelles, which like Wigglesworth's Vignettes de Jules Renard sets the texts of Renard's Histoire Naturelles to music. 

The performers note:

"The seed for Wigglesworth’s Vignettes de Jules Renard was planted when Roderick Williams encountered his dazzling vocal writing in the 2017 opera The Winter's Tale. The cycle builds on the Renard texts Ravel set and shares the earlier composer’s pictorial approach. We take a detailed look at the humble chicken as she pecks, drinks and eats. The squat, sedate Toad is dismissed as ugly, but instantly returns the insult. The grasshopper is the focus of the final song; we admire his fearlessness and impressive leaps but recall his fragility when he detaches a leg whilst escaping."

Listen to an excerpt from Ryan Wigglesworth's The Winter's Tale (2015-2016):English National Opera · ENO The Winter's Tale - excerpt:


To learn more about Ryan Wigglesworth, visit: schott-music.com.

Ryan Wigglesworth
Vignettes de Jules Renard
for baritone and piano
12'

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