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Well, it's a variety of song programmes. I've just been in Folkestone doing a contemporary programme for John Woolrich, who runs a little series down there, with Andrew West with some music by Harrison Birtwistle and some Zoë Martlew, Tansy Davies, and Sally Beamish, among others. So it’s music that's been either written for me or written recently with some other English song mixed in. I'm off to Dublin today to continue work on Krapp’s Last Tape in an opera version that was written in the 1970s by a Romanian composer called Marcel Mihalovici, who was a friend of Samuel Beckett. That's an ongoing project which is going to actually appear in Kilkenny Arts Festival next summer. And there are other bits and pieces coming up. I'm actually in Brighton later this week doing the Britten Serenade as well.

That sounds wonderful. You're obviously so well known for the Lieder classics, but it's wonderful that you do so much contemporary music as well. And that leads me to my next question: how do you approach learning a new song?

Obviously, if it's an old song, I can listen to a version of it. I do start with text. I love to know what the poems are about, whether it's in a language I do speak, or whether it's in a different language, just to make sense of it poetically. I would then hope to work with a pianist fairly quickly and work together on what the song contains. It is a wonderful combination of the two elements. It's a matter of communicating both the poetry and the music…and that's the fun of it.

Wonderful. You've acquired so much experience over the years, and are recognized as such a pinnacle of the industry. What do you wish that young singers and pianists knew when they were starting out in their careers?

I think the thing is, it is always a long journey. Experience just does take time and there aren't really shortcuts to certain things. I remember when I first sang Winterreise wishing that I'd already performed it 20 times. Until you get to that stage, it is always a bit like climbing a mountain for the first time. Once you get to know a mountain and can go up it reasonably comfortably, knowing where you're going, not having to look at the map the whole time, it becomes much more pleasurable in many ways. You can look around, you can observe the flora and fauna and the clouds and the weather as you're doing it. But certainly, you've got to put in a lot of work to get to that stage.

I love the different words for rehearsal in various languages, and of course, in French, it's repetition, and actually really repeating yourself, repeating your encounter is very important. Don’t worry about having to do a song 50 times. It is then that you will be able to embody it, and then you'll find that you've got something to say.

The other thing I would say to young singers is, well, two particular things. One is to try to get some languages under your belt, to really learn to speak French, German, Italian, Spanish. For song, German and French are very important. Go and live in those countries. Go and find people to have friendships with in those languages, and become fluent. There could be nothing better than being fluent in a language.

The other thing I would say is, don't neglect your wider experience. Read books, go to the movies, go to the theater. Because all of those things will inform what you have to say. It's not just getting the notes right and getting the words right, you've got to have something behind it which is actually what you're really communicating. That life experience.

That's so beautifully put. Thank you, Mark, for sharing those pearls of wisdom, and I'm sure it's not just actually young singers and pianists who they apply to. They are wonderful insights for everyone, every lover of song, and every person interested in music.

Leading on from that, here at SongEasel, we are really passionate about working with the local community, and cultivating new audiences for song. Song, of course, has been described sometimes as a niche genre. What's your approach to reaching and engaging new audiences?

I think it is tricky. I mean, I think that Schubert essentially sounds better in German.

But if you're singing to an English-speaking audience, you've got a problem of language. So, whether there are ways of surtitling or providing texts in interesting ways, possibly reading translations before you perform a song, we have to investigate them. The music is so wonderful, and often the poetry is also equally great, and to give people a real sense of what's going on is very exciting and very fulfilling.

I think there are different varieties of approaches. One, definitely, is to take music out of the concert hall and to take it to people. Often, song works best in quite small environments for 30, 40 people. Those were the sort of the groups that Schubert certainly first imagined his songs being sung to, possibly even a smaller group of friends. We mustn't be shy of talking to the audience, of interacting with the audience and asking audiences what they think of things, and just be imaginative. We mustn't undersell what we've got in this repertoire. It's so fantastic and really worth sharing. 

I would like to reiterate my support for SongEasel and for all it's doing, and all Jocelyn's doing to take song into communities, because I think that's hugely important. I'm delighted to be associated with SongEasel.

Thank you, that's lovely. And we're obviously absolutely thrilled that you are associated with us, and that this beautiful partnership is going forward. I was really struck by your comment about climbing mountains earlier, when it comes to developing one's artistic personality.

But with that in mind, I wanted to ask you, what feeds your spirit outside of music? What do you do to unwind alongside a very busy schedule?