inVerse – where poems sing and music tells the story
Thursday 9 October 2025, 6-7:30 PM – Qatar National Library
Qatar Concert Choir
Alessio Mastrodonato, Conductor
Claire Martin-Mayeur, Piano
inVersion String Quartet:
(Members of the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra)
Raluca Gette
Islam Elhefnawy
Giovanni Pasini
Ana Caterina Braga
Programme:
Liszt – Sonetto del Petrarca n.104
Fauré – Madrigal op. 35
Trad. – Lamma bada
Elgar – Spanish serenade
Debussy – Clair de lune
Beethoven – Meeresstille und Glückliche Fahrt op.112
Mastrodonato – If hands could free you heart
Tin – Sogno di volare
inVerse: where poems sing and music tells the story
inVerse explores the rich relationship between poetry and music. Every piece in tonight’s programme is based on a particular poem which the different composers have used to interpret language, imagery and emotion through sound. From medieval Italy to contemporary England, these compositions show how verse can inspire music across the centuries and different cultures.
It begins with Liszt’s Sonetto del Petrarca no.104, a piano interpretation of Francesco Petrarch’s Sonetto 134, a poem written around 1330. Petrarch’s sonnet reflects the poet’s enduring admiration for his beloved, a mix of reverence and the tension of unfulfilled desire. Liszt captures this complex emotional landscape in an expressive piano piece, going between lyrical tenderness and dramatic intensity that reflects the poem’s shifting moods.
Next is Fauré’s Madrigal op.35 which sets to music Armand Silvestre’s poem Madrigal (1878), a brief, playful reflection on love’s fleeting charms and the subtle ironies of human relationships. Fauré’s setting highlights the lightness of touch and elegance of the text, using delicate phrasing and transparent textures to underscore the poem’s wit and charm.
From the Arabic tradition next comes Lamma Bada Yatathanna, a traditional muwashshah whose origins date back to the 12th–13th centuries in Al-Andalus. For this performance, Qatar Concert Choir has embraced the challenge of somehow combining the Middle Eastern tradition with a Western harmonic and polyphonic approach. The text expresses longing and admiration for a loved one glimpsed in the night, capturing the tension between desire and restraint. The melody, with its modal inflections and ornamental flourishes, reflects the nuanced emotion of the text, expressing a poetic world distant in time but immediate in feeling.
Elgar’s Spanish Serenade sets to music Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Spanish Serenade (1839), a poem that evokes the warmth of Spanish evenings and the music of guitar and song. Longfellow’s imagery—softly rustling gardens, moonlit balconies and whispered adoration—is reflected in Elgar’s lyrical treatment, in which gentle harmonic colour and flowing lines conjure the atmosphere expressed by the text.
Debussy’s Clair de Lune draws on Paul Verlaine’s poem Clair de Lune (1869), a poem from his Fêtes Galantes collection. Verlaine describes a quiet, melancholic moonlit scene in which lovers wander in a soft light, blending subtle emotion with a sense of delicacy and restraint. Debussy’s harmonies, flowing melodic lines and shimmering textures capture the poem’s atmosphere, expressing its nuance in this well known solo piano piece.
Beethoven’s Meeresstille und Glückliche Fahrt op.112 set to music two poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Meeresstille (Calm Sea) and Glückliche Fahrt (Prosperous Voyage), both written in 1790. Meeresstille describes the eerie stillness of a becalmed sea, while Glückliche Fahrt celebrates the release and exhilaration of a ship sailing once more. Beethoven reflects these contrasting moods with sharply different musical textures, from tension and stasis to expansive glorious motion.
In a more contemporary voice, Alessio Mastrodonato’s If Hands Could Free You, Heart features Philip Larkin’s poem of the same name (approx. 1944), a reflective meditation on emotional constraint and the hope for release. The choral setting emphasises clarity and gentle harmonic shaping, allowing Larkin’s precise language and understated intensity to guide the music.
Finally, Christopher Tin’s Sogno Di Volare draws on Leonardo da Vinci’s writings on flight, particularly his visionary notebooks from the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Tin translates da Vinci’s contemplations on human aspiration, curiosity,and the mechanics of flight into a soaring musical narrative, celebrating imagination and exploration.
Across centuries and styles, inVerse shows how poets and composers have engaged in conversations that have spanned time and different cultures. This programme is about how verse can inspire music, and how music can, in turn, deepen our understanding of poetic meaning. From Petrarch’s medieval sonnets to Leonardo da Vinci’s visionary writings, these contrasting pieces invite you, the audience, to experience the subtle interplay of words and music, reflection and imagination.
Qatar Concert Choir
Starting life in 2011 as a small ad hoc ensemble of a dozen or so Baroque enthusiasts, today’s incarnation of the Qatar Concert Choir numbers more than 50 rigorously auditioned singers from more than 30 countries. The choir has developed and thrived under the baton of Artistic Director Giovanni Pasini since 2014. Today, Qatar Concert Choir is the country’s leading adult choral ensemble.
Regularly collaborating with the QPO, the QCC maintains a busy performance schedule, featuring works by composers such as Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven, Holst and Whitacre in its programs. The choir’s repertoire ranges from baroque to pop, musicals to videogame soundtracks, and from opera to Arabic songs. We celebrate life in Qatar through the regular performance of traditional and contemporary Arabic music, seeking to link this region’s singing culture with the broader international choral community. We have collaborated with international artists including Dana Al Fardan, Felicitas Fuchs, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Stefanie Iranyi and Clint van der Linde.
In 2018, Qatar Concert Choir was invited to Malaga, Spain to perform Beethoven’s Symphony No 9. Six years later, in celebration of its 200th anniversary, QCC united with QPO and brought Doha its largest ever multinational choir, performing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. It was a joyous experience for audience and singers alike as we joined forces with guest singers to perform as a group of more than 100 Qatar-based choristers.
QCC’s “Vivaldi’s Winter in Qatar” (available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Music) was the first ever classical choral music video entirely recorded, filmed, and edited in the Gulf region.
Alessio Mastrodonato
Conductor
Alessio is head of musicianship and piano teacher at Qatar Music Academy.
He received his Master Degree in piano performance at CODARTS in Rotterdam under the direction of internationally renowned teacher Aquiles Delle Vigne after completing his studies cum laude at the U. Giordano Conservatory in five years instead of ten.
Alessio followed piano masterclasses with world renowned teachers as Andrzej Jasinski, Andrea Lucchesini, Jerome Rose, Paul Lewis, Philippe Pickett, Fabio Bidini, Fernando Puchol, Agathe Leimoni and Boris Kraljevic.
Chopin Piano Concerto n.2 op. 21 conducted by Benedetto Montebello was his professional debut. The following years Alessio performed as soloist and in chamber music formation in several Nations around the world as France, Netherlands, Palestine, Qatar, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Portugal and India.
As popularizer, Alessio created new concert formats called “Lead Concert” and “Musical Chatts”, was creator and speaker of the radio program “Mondo in musica” broadcasted on Radio Diaconia.
He is part of QCC since February 2019 and sang with the choir for many events as soloist and as bass section leader.
Claire Martin-Mayeur
Pianist
Claire Martin-Mayeur is French and has been living in Doha since 2004. She graduated in the Ecole Nationale de Musique de Paris and the Centre de Recherche et d’Etudes pianistiques, Paris. She is a pianist and mainly an accompanist in various fields: with vocalists and instrumentalists, ballet dancers, music exams and competitions and within theatre plays. She is a piano teacher as well and sometimes a vocal coach. She has a strong interest in everything related to languages (including music!) and how to look for autonomy along with physical and mental awareness and wellness. Her motto as an educator could be: Teaching is feeding the minds, comforting the hearts and instil dreams with perseverance and joy.
Vocal Quartet
Neha Chindu
Rebecca Williams
Robert Ford
Ariel Cabrera
Qatar Concert Choir:
Soprano
Aarti Fernandes
Aga Krzyzanowska
Ashwini Varghese
Claire Martin-Mayeur
Elisabeth Knittel
Gerda Kassing
Leysan Gilaeva
Lillian Lubisi
Marie-Pierre Lissoir
Neha Chindu
Rebecca Williams
Sarah Loonman
Alto
Casey Riley
Charlotte Lavelle
Irene Theodoropoulou
Maria Klimenko
Nicole Tan
Odile Gervais
Rawan Shayboub Mahfoud
Roxana Castro Carbonell
Victoria Salazar
Tenor
Andrew Whitman
Beatrice van der Haert
David Zepeda Flores
Diaa Fawal
Kerry Suek
Olivier Rousseau
Robert Ford
Victor M. Perez
Bass
Ahmed El Helou
Chindu Kuruvilla
Francois Bontems
Goetz Kassing
Jeroen Brons
Stéphane Ipert
