Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

The final concert recorded at the Songlines series at this year's City of Song Festival in Derry, features tenor, James Gilchrist; pianist, Anna Tilbrook; with quartet in residence, the Elias Quartet. Brittten composed his song-cycle The Holy Sonnets of John Donne after returning from a concert with Yehudi Menuhin where they played to survivors of Nazi refugee camps. The experience had a profound effect on Britten and turned his thoughts to the problems of evil, suffering and salvation - the themes explored in this song-cycle. The series ends with Vaughan Williams's famous song cycle for tenor, piano and string quartet On Wenlock Edge to poems from A.E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad. Introduced by Sean Rafferty.