Three Choirs Festival – Meet Beth Taylor
Have you worked with Nathan James Dearden before? How does your approach to the music change when you’re giving the world premiere of the piece – when you can’t listen to existing recordings and interpretations?
This is my first collaboration with Nathan and I could not be more excited to meet him in person. I relish any opportunity to work with a composer and bring their work to life. Like in preparing any work, it has to be a slow, pragmatic and careful process at the beginning i.e. not diving straight in. Sometimes, I even just need time looking at the geography of the score and trying to imagine what it sounds like. Who else is involved? What is the text saying? Harmonically what is going on? The more questions and curiosity, the more possibility! It can be quite a lot of pressure to put on oneself when “world premiere” is added. But it’s most important to remember the opportunity it presents for an artist to explore all of their possibilities and unique qualities!
Have you performed at the Three Choirs Festival before? What are you most looking forward to about this concert?
It’s also my very first time at the Three Choirs Festival. I’m most looking forward to this immensely powerful and meditative programme on the 28th July and to exploring Worcester for the first time! Many of my friends and colleagues in the industry have spoken so highly of their experience performing at the festival and those particularly enriching moments with this dedicated and welcoming audience.
Holst was inspired by ancient Sanskrit texts, and The Cloud Messenger takes the poem Meghadūta as is influence. Do you find it helpful to familiarise yourself with the original texts when preparing for a performance?
My first exploration of Holst as a singer was his setting of the Hymns to the Rig Veda (for low voice and piano) during the final years of my undergraduate study in Glasgow. I found the score in the library and then performed them in my final exam, partly in defiance to having found no recording of a female singer interpreting them! But also out of sheer curitiosity of their texts and the fantasy and whimsical nature of the musical writing. They really took me to another world! These song cycles are taken also from Sanskrit texts and I was captivated from the opening lines.
I learned early on in my training, where possible, to take some time before even opening the score to familarise myself with the text and there are many poetry books at home to allow me distance from the notes, time signatures, performance markings etc.
I would say that original text is essential to read and to be better acquainted with the natural rhythm, pulse and nuances of the language before re-examining the translations! Holst remains one of my favourite composers for his own affinity with Sanksrit, a language so few in the West have achieved!
Is there a composer you feel a particular connection to or affinity with?
I feel this changes so much throughout my journey as a musician and I always feel more personally connected to a composer after studying their works more in depth for performance. I imagine it’s like spending a long weekend with a dear friend, giving each other total, undivided attention and then going separate ways, perhaps to pass each other by soon after-or maybe never again! But their memory of how they made you feel stays with you for a long time afterwards.
More recently, I’ve found myself deeply connected the music of Berlioz, Tailleferre and Elgar.
Handel has always been a composer I also feel vocally and emotionally connected with and I think he is the composer most people associate my voice with. There is far too much else out there to explore to have any definitive answer.
What three things are you listening to at the moment?
At the moment, I’m enjoying listening to the restored recordings of Mildred Bailey, hailed the “Queen of Swing” in the 1940s. A beautiful honey-toned voice with a lot of charm and wit sprinkled in.
“I Never Thought it would Happen” podcast series, supported by Help Musicians UK is also a highly recommended listen to any musicians out there (and indeed music enthusiasts).It’s been quite cathartic hearing musicians of all backgrounds talking openly about the issues and joys they face in their job. Wonderfully, we are never alone.
And finally, whilst flitting across various recital albums, I cam across a glorious album of Brahms and Schumann lieder from 1958 with Maureen Forrester (Mezzo-Soprano) and John Newmark (Piano). She has always been a favourite of mine and I am always so moved by the truth in her voice and speaking with the music.
