Orchestral
When asked as a child what her favourite instrument was, Lesley-Jane Rogers would typically respond, "the orchestra!". The huge variety of colours that an orchestra can offer is a veritable feast indeed, so it will come as no great surprise to learn that Lesley-Jane feels a great affinity for works such as the Strauss Four Last Songs, Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne, Britten Les Illuminations, Mozart's Exsultate, jubilate, Bach's solo cantata Jauchzett Gott, and Ravel's sumptuous Shéhérazade. To have the orchestral palette available for word-painting the text is her idea of vocal heaven.
The Strauss Four Last Songs is a work she has performed many times and feels especially attached to. She was delighted in 2006 to sing them in Chicago together with Strauss's exquisite song Morgen, and again in November at St George's, Brandon Hill. The Chicago performance was recorded live and can be heard on this website; to listen, click here. Her most recent performance of the Four Last Songs was in Gloucester Cathedral in June 2008.
In March 2008, Lesley-Jane gave her first performance of Finzi Dies Natalis, a work that has captured her imagination and that she hopes she will perform many more times.
Lesley-Jane also enjoys the intimacy of chamber-music: in particular she relishes matching her voice to individual instrumental colours, especially in new-music works. She also has a large baroque repertoire boasting nearly 200 cantatas, including some hundred cantatas by Bach and sixty by Telemann, as well as many works by Handel, Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Purcell and others. However, she is not limited to mainstream baroque repertoire, having also performed works by more unusual composers such as Caldara, Heinichen, Akeroyde and Ariosti.
For full details of Lesley-Jane's concert diary or for booking enquiries, please e-mail:
info@lesleyjanerogers.demon.co.uk