‘Passion: German Romantic Lieder’ soars at All Saints Church

An evening of angelic songs

 BY TOMMY WATTERS

 

 MARCH 7, 2024

 

IN  THE OCEAN STAR

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BAY HEAD – All Saints Church, 500 Lake Ave., hosted its second ever Bristol Music Series program titled “Passion: German Romantic Lieder” on Sunday, March 3.

 

The live concert featured bass-baritone Jeremy Lees, accompanied by Kathleen Healy-Wedsworth on piano, performing songs from Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss and Hugo Wolf.

 

The songs [lieder in German] that were played tell stories of passion, love, loss, and transcendence. Included in the program were Hugo Wolf’s Michelangelo Lieder, his only song cycle, which “is seldom performed because it was written specifically for the bass voice, and stretches tonality to the breaking point, signaling the emergence of modern atonality,” according to a press release from All Saints.
 

Last year, Mr. Lees spoke with Stephen Pinel, music director of All Saints, about his interest in doing a live concert for an event like this. The theme of last year’s concert was 20th Century Arts Song. Mr. Lees explained that this year’s theme, German Romantic Lieder, was chosen because he always had an “affinity for art songs from various countries and languages.”

 

Stephen Pinel, director of music at All Saints, said this is a “very interesting program” that he and Mr. Lee developed. All songs performed were from the late 18th or early 19th century. Mr. Pinel said these songs are about “love, sex, passion, intimacy, all of the things German Romanticism was very much involved in and very focused on.”
 

The Bristol Music Series was established in 2022 at the church to honor Lee Hastings Bristol Jr. [1923-1979], former organist and choirmaster at the church from 1940 until 1974. Mr. Bristol was also an executive with Bristol Myers, president of the famed Westminster Choir College in Princeton from 1962 to 1969, a profound musician, and a nationally respected churchman in the Episcopal Church.
 

The event was free and open to the public, and selected wines from The Working Dog Winery in East Windsor were served, courtesy of two parish members who are professional vintners, Mark and Linda Carduner.

 

This is an excerpt of the print article. For more on this story, read The Ocean Star—on newsstands Friday or online in our e-Edition.