James Newby and Joseph Middleton: Celebrating Schubert, Evening Recital
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Leeds Inspired

James Newby and Joseph Middleton: Celebrating Schubert, Evening Recital

31st January 2026

On the first page of his Songs & Proverbs of William Blake, Benjamin Britten wrote ‘For Dieter: the past and the future’. ‘Dieter’ is the baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau who premiered this work some sixty years ago with the composer himself at the piano. In their Leeds Song recital Newby and Middleton perform exactly the same songs that Fischer-Dieskau and Benjamin Britten performed together on 8 June 1972 during the illustrious festival at the Snape Maltings Concert Hall in Aldeburgh. A festival that made history with its exciting combination of old and new music, featuring world-renowned artists and young up-and-coming talents. The same energy is on show at Leeds Song Festivals!

James Newby is a former BBC New Generation Artist and Rising Star of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. As well as a 2022 BBT Award winner, he was an ECHO Rising Star (2022/23) with appearances at major concert halls throughout Europe. A recipient of the Richard Tauber Prize for best interpretation of a Schubert Lied at the 2015 Wigmore Hall/Kohn International Song Competition, James has since enjoyed a close relationship with the Hall. Appearances there include Mahler Rückert-Lieder in 2023 with Mitsuko Uchida as part of BBT’s 20th anniversary celebrations, Die schöne Müllerin with Simon Lepper and a mixed programme of Dowland, Schubert, Wolf and Liszt with Joseph Middleton.

Joseph Middleton is Director of Leeds Song, Musician-in-Residence at Pembroke College Cambridge and a Professor and Fellow at his alma mater, the Royal Academy of Music.

The 24/25 season sees Joseph partner artists including Veronique Gens, Sir Simon Keenlyside, Ian Bostridge, Dame Sarah Connolly, Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, Huw Montague Rendall, Roderick Williams, Florian Boesch, Christoph Prégardien, Carolyn Sampson and James Newby in recital. Joseph also returns to the Berlin BoulezSaal and Schubertiade Schwarzenberg with Sophie Rennert and his recording projects include an ongoing 5-album set of Mahler Lieder for Signum Records and Wolf Lieder for BIS Records.

PROGRAMME

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Der Strom
Auf der Donau
Der Wanderer
Gruppe aus dem Tartarus
An die Freunde
Prometheus
Freiwilliges Versinken
Aus ‘Heliopolis’ I
Der Wanderer an den Mond
Fischerweise

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

“Songs and Proverbs of William Blake Op. 74”

Proverb I
London
Proverb II
The Chimney Sweeper
Proverb III
A Poison Tree
Proverb IV
The Tyger
Proverb V
The Fly
Proverb VI
Ah, Sun-flower
Proverb VII
Every Night and Every Morn