Roderick Williams OBE & Iain Burnside: Evening Recital – ‘Haiku’
6.00—8.00pm
Artists
Roderick Williams OBE baritone
Iain Burnside piano
Leeds Song favourite Roderick Williams is joined by former Artistic Director Iain Burnside to present a programme themed around Japanese haiku, featuring new works by Libby Larsen set to be premièred in 2026. Larsen’s delicate settings of haiku are interwoven with thematically related songs, old and new, creating a rich tapestry of musical and poetic connections. As Williams describes, the links between songs may be poetic, musical, contrasting, or sympathetic—encouraging free association. He likens Larsen’s short songs to a mobile, suspended around the central theme of displacement, from which other musical “threads” extend. Williams has selected additional songs from his repertoire to follow these threads, inviting listeners to form their own associations and connections, allowing the fragile beauty of the programme to evolve and expand.
Programme
‘Haiku’
SERENDIPITY
Libby Larsen
IKURU MI NI GESENU KOTO OOKU NATSU-HOSHI HIKARU
For the living
many incomprehensible incidents
summer stars shine
Franz Schubert
Die Sterne
Francis Poulenc
Jacques Villon
Gerald Finzi
Waiting both
SHE’S LEAVING HOME
Libby Larsen
HANARE BANARE NI WAKARE NO HI NO NATSU NO KUMO
Departure day
families leaving one by one
summer clouds
Ludwig van Beethoven
Leichte Segler in den Höhen
Franz Schubert
Abschied
Joan Trimble
My grief on the sea
FORCED TO SET SAIL
Libby Larsen
IKUSA KASHUU O OWARE SABAKU NO MIZUUMI NAMI TATANU HI
War forced us from California
No ripples this day
on desert lake
Franz Schubert
Meeres Stille
Elizabeth Lutyens
Refugee Song
CHILDREN CHASING DRAGONFLIES
Libby Larsen
HIZAKARI TOMBO OU KORA NO HA GA SHIROI
At midday
children chasing dragonflies
their teeth are white
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Das Kinderspiel
Carl Loewe
Der Zahn
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Silent Noon
Francis Poulenc
Joan Mirò
Interval
NIGHT TRAINS
Libby Larsen
KISHA NO OTO KIKOYU NAGAKI YORUO SAMETE ORI
Hearing sound of train
AWAKE-
this endless night
Benjamin Britten
Midnight on the Great Western
Franz Schubert
Willkommen und Abschied
LEAVES ON THE TRACK
Libby Larsen
KISHA RERU O KISHIRU KOYOI OMOIDE ICHINEN NO AKIYO
Train rumbles on track
this night memories of past year
autumn evening
Gabriel Fauré
Automne
Franz Liszt
Es rauschen die Winde
Muriel Herbert
Faintheart in a railway train
Francis Jackson
From a railway carriage
THE DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL
Libby Larsen
FUYUYO WAGA KATA O TATAKU OTOKO NO IRO SHIROKU
Winter night
pale faced man
taps my shoulder
Franz Schubert
Der Doppelgänger
Ivor Gurney
Reconciliation
WHERE DO I DISCARD MY DREAMS?
Libby Larsen
AKETE HOSHI WA KIE YUME WA DOKO E SUTER
At daybreak
stars disappear
where do I discard my dreams?
Robert Schumann
Aus alten Märchen winkt es
Franz Schubert
Nacht und Träume
María Grever
What a Diff’rence a Day Made