Christianne Stotijn was scheduled to sing at this concert but lost her voice on the morning of the concert. Julius Drake enlisted the international star mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron to take her place. We are grateful to both Fleur and Julius for the hard work they put in at the rehearsal to provide a different programme of music and a memorable concert.

Read review of this concert by Mark Aspen

Fleur and Julius performed a similar programme in Ilkley recently. The Ilkley Gazette reviewer had this to say:

Fleur Barron is a remarkable singing actress with a beautiful mezzo-soprano voice…with that ample darkness and warmth at the bottom that marks out a fine mezzo. The first half of the programme consisted of eight songs each from Brahms and Schumann, providing contrasting reflections on love and life…the dark drama of Der Soldat (The soldier) and the rolling accompaniment of the carriage in Mein Wagen rollet Langsam (My carriage travels slowly) were carried off excellently. Next we heard a performance of Debussy’s Chansons de Bilitis which brought out the darker side of Fleur Barron’s voice admirably. Manuel de Falla’s Seven Spanish Folksongs rounded off the evening in fine style with thrilling playing from Julius Drake and agile and attractive singing from Fleur Barron.