Mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston and pianist Sholto Kynoch bring Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin to Royal Holloway.

Written in 1823, Die schöne Müllerin sets twenty poems by Wilhelm Müller as the story of a young miller who leaves home, follows a brook and falls in love with the beautiful miller's daughter. What begins as a journey filled with youthful optimism gradually becomes a darker exploration of desire, jealousy and disillusionment, as the miller finds himself unable to reconcile his idealised vision of love with reality.

Throughout the cycle, the natural world becomes an intimate companion to the miller's experience. The brook is his confidante, while flowers, forests, the changing seasons and the landscape around the mill reflect his shifting emotional state. In this sense, Die schöne Müllerinoffers a particularly resonant perspective within The Sounding World, where listening to the environments around us can become a way of understanding ourselves. Schubert's music moves with the miller from the straightforward energy of Das Wandern to moments of extraordinary harmonic and emotional intensity, before arriving at the final lullaby in which the brook offers consolation.

The cycle was written at a pivotal moment in Schubert's own life. His own sense of uncertainty and lost hope forms a poignant backdrop to this story of love, mortality and the search for meaning. Yet neither Müller nor Schubert allows tragedy to have the final word. In the closing song, the brook's music offers a vision of peace, harmony and beauty beyond the immediate world of the young miller's suffering.

This event is presented as part of the International Concert Series 2026-27 - The Sounding World (https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/research-and-education/subjects/music/studying-here/music-performance-at-royal-holloway/the-sounding-world-international-concert-series-2026-27/)- at Royal Holloway.

Event programme

Franz Schubert (1797-1828): Die schöne Müllerin, D795

About the performers

Helen Charlston’s ability to make each performance completely her own and her depth of connection with audiences has earned her international acclaim as “one of the most exciting voices in the new generation of British singers” (Alexandra Coghlan, Gramophone). She was recently a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist (2021-23), and was the 2023 Gramophone Award winner for Best Concept Album and also collected the Vocal award at the BBC Music Magazine Awards for her second Delphian album: Battle Cry: the only recording that year to win at both ceremonies. Read more (https://www.rayfieldallied.com/artists/helen-charlston).

Sholto Kynoch is a sought-after pianist who specialises in song and chamber music. He is the founder and Artistic Director of the Oxford International Song Festival (formerly Oxford Lieder), which won a prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Award in 2015, cited for its ‘breadth, depth and audacity’ of programming. In July 2018, Sholto was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in the RAM Honours. Read more (https://sholtokynoch.com/about/).

Car parking

When you arrive for a College event at our Egham campus, please park in car parks 12 or 4.

Car park 12 can be accessed by turning right as you enter the main College gates and is located next to the tennis courts. If this car park is full, please drive further onto our campus to car park 4, which can be accessed by turning left at the mini-roundabout behind the Students’ Union. We would advise that you bring the College map to campus with you and give yourself plenty of time to park.

Blue Badge holders can find designated parking spaces in Car park 1W, as well as between Gardeners Lodge and the Williams Annexe. You can find these locations by looking at our campus map opposite. If you require any assistance on arrival, please contact our premises team in advance of your visit by emailing: premisesadmin@royalholloway.ac.uk and they will be happy to help.

Please note that we operate an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system on certain parts of our campus, however if you are here for an organised event, parking is unrestricted for event guests in car parks 12, 4 or 14 (or display your blue badge permit if parking in a disabled bay). If you have any questions about parking, please email: premisesadmin@royalholloway.ac.uk

Description supplied by the event organiser.