Recital

The Recital Hall

In recital, Vickers has made the music of Benjamin Britten a mainstay of his repertory, incorporating new cycles every season. Recent concerts have included Britten’s Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo and Winter Words, with upcoming performances of The Holy Sonnets of John Donne and Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente. The tenor has given numerous performances of Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings and Canticle I — My Beloved is Mine, Canticle II — Abraham and Isaac, and Canticle III — Still falls the Rain. Furthermore, marking the centenary of Peter Pears in 2010, Vickers gave a celebratory concert that included a performance of Britten’s The Heart of the Matter, with Edith Sitwell’s interleaved poetry recited by the esteemed tenor Jerold Siena. Vickers is committed to programming the vast array of literature performed by Britten and Pears from the period of the 1930s to the 1970s. The tenor is proud to have been a participant in The Songs of Franz Schubert: A Six-Year Cycle with renowned pianist John Wustman, and has also given national performances of Brahms’ Liebeslieder Waltzes (also recorded in New York City for the film Four Hands) and the Zigeunerlieder with pianist and Brahms scholar Lucien Stark. The tenor adds Schumann’s Dichterliebe to his 2014-2015 season, and Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin to his 2014-2015 season.

After acclaimed performances in Boston’s Jordan Hall of Michael Tippett’s Songs for Ariel with the British keyboardist Ian Watson on The Shakespeare Concerts, Vickers is slated for a future recording of additional Shakespeare settings alongside those of Joseph Summer (Albany Records and Parma Recordings).

Upcoming engagements include Tippett’s Boyhood’s End and The Heart’s Assurance, in addition to future concerts of Dvorak’s Ciganské Melodie, Schoenberg’s Vier Lieder, Op. 2, and Joaquín Turina’s Homenaje a Lope de Vega. In the 2011-2012 season, Vickers premièred Ke-Chia Chen’s Three Frost Songs with pianist R. Kent Cook. The tenor was thrilled to appear in Philadelphia for the world première of Tony Solitro’s War Wedding, a tour de force song cycle commissioned by Vickers and based on the poetry cycle of Alun Lewis.

Samuel Barber

• “Despite and Still”
• “Three Songs,” Op. 45

Ludwig van Beethoven

• “An die ferne Geliebte”
• “Adelaide”

Alban Berg

• “Sieben frühe Lieder”

Arthur Bliss

• “Elegiac Sonnet”

Benjamin Britten

• “Seven Michelangelo Sonnets”
• “Holy Sonnets of John Donne”
• “Serenade”
• “Winter Words”
• “Quatre chansons françaises”
• “Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente”
• “Songs from the Chinese”
• Canticle I – “My beloved’s mine”
• Canticle II – “Abraham and Isaac”
• Canticle III – “Still falls the Rain”
• Canticle IV – “The Journey of the Magi”
• Canticle V – “The Death of Saint Narcissus”

Johannes Brahms

• “Zigeunerlieder”
• “Liebeslieder Wältzen”

John Carter

• “Cantata”

Jean Cras

• “L’offrande lyrique”
• “Fontaines”

Antonín Dvořák

• “Čigánski Melodie”
• “Four Love Songs,” Op. 73
• “Four Songs,” Op. 82

Gabriel Fauré

• “Poème d’un jour”
• “La bonne chanson”

Gerald Finzi

• “A Young Man’s Exhortation”

John Harbison

• “The Gatsby Songs”

Franz Liszt

• “Tre sonetti di Petrarca”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

• “Misero! O sogno, o son desto”
• “Per pieta, non ricercate”

Francis Poulenc

• “Tel jour telle nuit”

Roger Quilter

• “To Julia”

Arnold Schoenberg

• “Vier Lieder,” Op. 2

Franz Schubert

• “Winterreise”
• “Die schöne Müllerin”

Robert Schumann

• “Dichterliebe”
• “Liederkreis,” Op. 24

Tony Solitro

• “War Wedding” (2011)

Richard Strauss

• “Vier Lieder,” Op. 27

Michael Tippett

• “Boyhood’s End”
• “The Heart’s Assurance”
• “Songs for Ariel”

Joaquín Turina

• “Homenaje á Lope de Vega”
• “Poema en forma de canciones”

William Walton

• “Anon in Love”

Ralph Vaughan Williams

• “Four Hymns”
• “On Wenlock Edge”
• “Ten Blake Songs”