Event Description

How does armed conflict affect creatives? What keeps them going, both during the fighting and after? This Fragile Beauty, for soprano, piano, violin and narrator, explores the World War One wartime experience of composers Ivor Gurney, George Butterworth, Arthur Bliss, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, with settings of war-poets by Ireland and Elgar’s evocative A Voice in the Desert from the Belgian perspective.

A rich tapestry of longing and loss, it also features poems and letters by Gurney and others that emerged from their time in the trenches and the collective grief, processing and change that followed it.

Performers

April Fredrick soprano
Eric McElroy piano
Grace Shepherd violin
Joseph Campbell Powell narrator

Programme

Ivor Gurney Poem: ‘Robecq’
George Butterworth Song: Fill a Glass with Golden Wine
Ivor Gurney Letter: ‘The Rhythm of War’
Ivor Gurney Song: ‘Severn Meadows’
Ivor Gurney Letter: ‘First time in’
Folksong Song: ‘David of the White Rock’
Ivor Gurney Poem: ‘War Books’
John Ireland Song: ‘Blind’
John Ireland Song: ‘The Cost’
Ivor Gurney Poem: ‘To His Love’
Arthur Bliss Song: A Child’s Prayer
Arthur Bliss Song: The Hammers
Arthur Bliss Song: This Night
Ivor Gurney Song: The Treasure
Ivor Gurney Poem: ‘Photographs’
Ivor Gurney Song: One Day
Ralph Vaughan Williams Songs: Along the Field
Ivor Gurney Letter: ‘Prices’
Ivor Gurney Poem: ‘Bach and the Sentry’
Ivor Gurney Letter: ‘Crystallisation’
Edward Elgar Song: A Voice in the Desert

Tickets: £12 – available to book via the Elgar Festival website (please note: National Trust entry charges to non-members for cottage and garden apply)

Visit the Elgar Festival website for more of this year’s events.

Tuesday 26 May 2026

2:00pm

The Firs

£12

Website

Location

The Firs

Elgar's Birthplace Museum

Crown East Lane, Lower Broadheath

WR2 6RH

Get directions >

Tenbury Wells Country Market

Michael (12A)