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Eight Songs For A Mad King at Cottiers

Tuesday 25 February, 2020 . 7p.m. – 9 p.m.

Pre-Concert Performance: The Worshipful Company of Aviarists
Pre-concert performance is FREE ticket-holders only
6pm – 7pm

“Enter the compelling world from which Maxwell-Davies drew his remarkable 8 Songs For A Mad King. Founded by King George III in 1817, the Worshipful Company of Aviarists served to source and look after his tuneful birds and now present this flight of fancy from inside a birdcage of absurdity as the worshipful company create the regal mind of the mad monarch.
We’ll sing a song of sixpence with four and twenty blackbirds, and have a Lark doing it!”

Performance
7.30pm

Scotland’s Contemporary Music Ensemble, Red Note, have been embedded into RCS life for many years, performing works by their student composers, inviting instrumental students in to perform side-by-side and supporting  young conductors.

This year, Red Note and RCS take on a monumental work by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Eight Songs for a Mad King.

The score (to a text by Randolph Stow) offers a searing examination of madness, and this tour de force music theatre piece for male voice and ensemble gives a visceral thrill in performance.

George, the mad king, is suffering from hallucinations and is painfully aware of his failing mental state. During his first episodes of madness, he is subjected to torture, starvation, reproach; he is kept in a stable where he is treated like an animal.

Performing alongside Red Note, in the role of the Mad King, will be MMus Opera student Oskar McCarthy, and the piece will be conducted by one of the Leverhulme conducting Fellows.

The performance will also feature works by Mark Simpson, Harrison Birtwistle and RCS’ very own composers, Sean O’Callaghan and Rylan Gleave.

Programme

Mark Simpson Straw Dogs
Harrison Birtwistle Carmen Arcadiae
Sean O’Callaghan New Work
Ryan Gleave New Work
Interval
Peter Maxwell Davies Eight Songs for a Mad King

RCS Music Lab
Red Note Ensemble
Conductors: Teresa Riveiro Bohm, Joel Sandelson and Sergej Bolkhovets
Soloist: Oskar McCarthy
Director: Mark Hathaway

£10.50 – £8.50

Book Tickets Online

Box Office 0141 357 4000

Cottiers 93 – 95 Hyndland Street, G11 5PU

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