Baritone & piano

Three Songs after Schubert
'A Stranger I came out here' is the first of a trilogy of songs commissioned by Roderick Williams, settings of poems by John Greening. John has fashioned a vibrant, modern 'take' on each of Schubert's song cycles. Here he follows the rhyme and mood of 'Gute nacht' from Winterreise, taking inspiration from another journey, Captain Scott's perilous expedition to the Antarctic in 1911-12. On this 'Worst Journey in the World' three Emperor penguin eggs were collected in darkness, in minus seventy temperatures, the explorers guided just by candlelight and the stars. There is a relentless pulse which underlies an intense melodic line.
After Ständchen: Schubert's 'Ständchen' from his final cycle, Schwanengesang, is a lovely serenade, full of longing; there is nothing sinister or spectral here. But John Greening has tilted his serenade into something dark and shadowy where trees betray and birds conspire.
At the Wheel: The final song, 'At the Wheel', bursts into sunlight at last. John Greening alludes to Schubert's 'Mein' (No. 11), from Die Schöne Müllerin (a moment of complete happiness in the cycle). The fast-moving figuration might suggest the persistent turning of the millwheel and in the closing bars Schubert's Die Forelle makes a fleeting, fishy appearance in the accompaniment.