Music in the Round 2015 May Festival - Ensemble 360 with Katherine Lacy

Composers writing for children, and composers perhaps reflecting on their own youth with more than a hint of nostalgia: Mládí (Youth) is a musical reflection of Janácek’s days as a schoolboy at an Augustinian monastery in Brno, while Pohadka evokes the spirit of fairytales through visions of enchanted birds, a captive princess, a lovelorn prince and an infernal demon. More fairytales and children’s stories reveal the most lyrical and beguiling aspects of Schumann and Ravel’s writing, and Ensemble 360 also cross the Atlantic for captivating images of growing up in America.

The émigré composer Hanns Eisler’s effervescent Septet was originally written as the soundtrack to Joseph Losey’s documentary film A Child Went Forth, while Ives’ fourth sonata recalls the hymns sung at children’s church services and which Ives remembered first hearing as a 4-year old boy in his home town of Danbury, Connecticut.