Past Thomas Hardy

Conceived during a residency at The Red House, Benjamin Britten’s former home, in 2019, this collection of new compositions and arrangements by Arthur Keegan – developed in close collaboration with the performers – shows the profound influence of Thomas Hardy’s poetry on composers throughout the twentieth century and into our own era. Hardy’s characteristic themes are present throughout: the relentless passing of time; nature and the changing seasons; the effects on both of the modern world, with its machines and timetables.

Keegan’s Elegies for Emma, for voice and guitar, seeks to restore the voice of Hardy’s first wife Emma alongside the regret-filled poems Hardy wrote after her death, while String Quartet No 1 ‘Elegies for Tom’ weaves instrumental meditations on Hardy’s poem ‘Afterwards’ together with interludes setting a later poem by Philip Larkin. Recently named Young Artist of the Year at the prestigious RPS Music Awards, mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean is joined by guitarist James Girling and the Ligeti Quartet in performances that linger long in the memory.