Shakespeare set to music at Conservatoire

Students from the Early Music Department at the Royal Conservatoire will perform Shakespeare’s beautiful poetry to music by Thomas Linley Jr. This special concert on Thursday, 23 February will take place in the Arnold Schönbergzaal.

For the first time in the Netherlands works by Thomas Linley Jr. will be performed. Linley, often called the ‘English Mozart’ took Shakespeare’s lyrics and set them to music in an ingenious way, reflecting his humour, inventiveness and drama.

Soloists as well as the choir and orchestra from the Royal Conservatoire will perform the compositions Music for The Tempest and Lyric Ode on the Fairies, Aerial Beings and Witches of Shakespeare. Linley wrote Music for The Tempest in 1777 for a revival of the play 'The Tempest' by William Shakespeare. We know that Lyric Ode was written after 1771.

The orchestra will be conducted by Patrick Ayrton.

About Thomas Linley Jr.

When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was 14 years old, he and Thomas Linley the Younger (1756-1778) were best friends during their stay in Florence, Italy. Mozart was visiting Italy with his father and Linley was studying the violin with Nardini.

The musicologist Charles Burney notes in his journal of his travels through Italy that the two boys caused a stir as musical geniuses everywhere they went. Linley died in a tragic boating accident in England at the age of 22, but left some surprising works. Among them include Music for The Tempest and Lyric Ode on the Fairies, Aerial Beings and Witches of Shakespeare, composed 150 years after the death of the playwright.

More info

The concert by the students from the Early Music Department, conducted by Patrick Ayrton, will start on Thursday, 23 February at 20.15 hrs. The concert takes place in the Arnold Schönbergzaal of the Royal Conservatoire.

Tickets cost € 10 per person and can be purchased at the door.

More information at www.koncon.nl.