Music Inspired By Song and Birdsong - Manchester Music Festival

Start: Thursday, July 31, 2025 7:30PM
End: Thursday, July 31, 2025 9:30PM

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Powers’ sextet of poems from 2013 forms the basis of composer Perry Goldstein’s song cycle, “Birding by Ear.” Baritone Randall Scarlata, admired for his “compelling desire to bring texts to life” (The New York Times), will be joined by the musicians with whom he premiered the work in 2022—violinist Philip Setzer, cellist Paul Watkins, and pianist Gilles Vonsattel. Wenzel Müller’s amusing aria “Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu,” followed by Beethoven’s equally buoyant variations on the song, embrace the avian theme; and the sounds of the woodland are further celebrated in Schubert’s “Die Forelle,” based on the poem by Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart, as well as the composer’s subsequent and well-loved “Trout” Quintet. Bassist Nina Bernat joins the ensemble on the final work.