Sarah Connolly sings: "Out on the Lawn I Lie in Bed", from "Spring Symphony" by Benjamin Britten

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Benjamin Britten set four stanzas of his friend W.H. Auden's 1933 poem "A Summer Night", to be sung by the alto soloist and mixed chorus, in the 2nd movement of his "Spring Symphony" of 1949. Their use was controversial among critics at the time.

"Out on the lawn I lie in bed,
Vega conspicuous overhead
In the windless nights of June,
As congregated leaves complete
Their day's activity; my feet
Point to the rising moon.

Now north and south and east and west
Those I love lie down to rest;
The moon looks on them all,
The healers and the brilliant talkers,
The eccentrics and the silent walkers,
The dumpy and the tall.

To gravity attentive, she
Can notice nothing here, though we
Whom hunger does not move,
From gardens where we feel secure
Look up and with a sigh endure
The tyrannies of love:

And, gentle, do not care to know,
Where Poland draws her eastern bow,
What violence is done,
Nor ask what doubtful act allows
Our freedom in this English house,
Our picnics in the sun."

At this performance on 14 May 2011, Sir Mark Elder conducted the Hallé Orchestra and Chorus, with Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano) as the alto soloist.

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