On March 4, Thea Musgrave's new work, Poets in Love for tenor, baritone and piano 4-hand premieres at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania. 
The seventeen poems selected for this work span many centuries and languages and give very varied views on the subject of love. There is a mixture of solos and duets to give variety, and the two singers are characterized differently: the tenor is more romantic, and the baritone more realistic and cynical. In the penultimate poem by Tyutchev this difference is emphasized in the words О мы, последняя любовь / Ты и блаженство и Безнадежность. (O love of my last years you are both rapture and desperation). However both singers recognize the power of love. To emphasize the continuity there are several recurring musical motives: in particular the theme associated with the words from the Shakespeare poem in Twelfth Night “What is love?”photo: Thea Musgrave © Christian Steiner