Strauss’s ‘Four Last Songs’ with Rowan Pierce
Saturday 14 June 2025
7.30pm
Clifton Cathedral
Tickets: £19.62
Including Bristol Beacon booking fee
A powerful finale to close this year’s festival, featuring Rowan Pierce, one of today’s most captivating sopranos, in Strauss’s deeply moving Four Last Songs – the composer’s farewell to the world, written in the shadow of mortality and considered a pinnacle of 20th-century orchestral song.
​
Showcasing Bristol Metropolitan Orchestra, this evocative programme includes the melancholic and introspective Symphony No. 3 by Brahms, Ravel’s exquisite Pavane pour une infante défunte, and Wagner’s bold Overture to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg – a sweeping journey through late Romanticism.
Rowan Pierce – Soprano
Bristol Metropolitan Orchestra
Tim Harrison – Conductor
Programme includes
Richard Wagner Overture to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Maurice Ravel Pavane pour une infante défunte
Richard Strauss Four Last Songs
Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 3
About Rowan Pierce
Yorkshire-born soprano Rowan Pierce was awarded the President’s Award by King Charles III at the Royal College of Music in 2017. She won First Prize and the Song Prize at the inaugural Grange Festival International Singing Competition, the Schubert Society Singer Prize, and the Van Someren Godfery Prize. A former Britten Pears Young Artist and Rising Star of the OAE, she was also a Harewood Artist at ENO.
​
Rowan has performed across Europe and the Americas with ensembles including the Academy of Ancient Music, Dunedin Consort, Gabrieli Consort, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, and the OAE. She made her BBC Proms debut in 2017, returning in 2019 and 2023. Recent and future highlights include Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, roles in Dido and Aeneas and Alcina, and concerts at Wigmore Hall, Glyndebourne, and the Buxton Festival.
​
Her operatic credits range from Monteverdi and Handel to Mozart and Bernstein, with appearances at the Royal Opera House, Opéra de Lille, Stuttgart, and Edinburgh International Festival. A versatile recitalist, she has collaborated with Sir Thomas Allen, Dame Ann Murray, Roger Vignoles, and Philharmonia Baroque. Her recordings include Acis and Galatea (Chandos), King Arthur (Signum), and Schubert songs with Roderick Williams (Signum). She was also the singing voice of Siena Rosso in Netflix drama, Bridgerton.
