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Making recordings during Lockdown

The pianist Christopher Guild discussed the problems of recording during Covid Lockdown

You might think that the Society, having been in existence for several decades now, would not have anything new to offer, yet Christopher’s presentation on 13 March was new in several respects. First, it was a description of the recording process itself (more later) second, we had we had recordings performed by Christopher and third, two recordings which had never been performed in public before. Christopher used to teach at Godolphin School in Salisbury.

One composer he featured was Ronald Stevenson who is somewhat neglected today and whose work Christopher has been exploring and unearthing new pieces. Other composers featured during the evening were by William Beaton Moonie, Berhard van Deeren, Ronald Center and William Brocklesby Wordsworth, great nephew of the poet of the same name. There were transcriptions of works by Purcell. Stevenson is no stranger to the Society as Christopher gave a presentation of some of the composer’s work in an earlier visit in 2015.

Recording, like many other aspects of life, was all but impossible during Lockdown although there were attempts at performing elements and then melding them together. One such was a recording with a poem in medieval French included.

Christopher explained the recording process generally. Except for major stars, the record company will not make any up-front payment. This means the performers need to secure finance themselves unless they self-fund. The process starts with an idea which is proposed to the record label. Then a recording studio needs to be located and in the case of a piano recording, with a full size instrument. This is to do with the dynamics of the sound and the harmonics which are important for the integrity of the final sound. Perhaps surprisingly, the piano has to be kept in tune several times during the day which of course is another expense. This arises because of temperature and other changes in the studio during the day. The studio Christopher used was near Beccles.

Each piece can be played three times together with ‘patching’ where there are mistakes or infelicities of playing to be corrected. This process can take two days.

This was a fascinating evening with several never before heard pieces performed by composers – such as Ronald Center – of whom few if any of us had heard before. The process of recording was especially interesting and it’s perhaps surprising to note that as a recorded music society we have not touched on the process itself before.


The next meeting is on 27th March and concerns the conductor Leopold Stokowski who died at Nether Wallop.

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Next meeting

The next meeting is tonight, 13 March 2023, and is a presentation about making recordings during Lockdown. It will be by concert pianist Christopher Guild and this is an extract from his biography:

Born in Scotland in 1986, Christopher Guild studied piano and violin locally before entering St Mary’s Music School, Edinburgh aged 13. He took top honours in the Moray Piano Competition 2001 – he remains the youngest winner to this day.  Christopher entered the Royal College of Music in 2005 as a Foundation Scholar and studied for six years with Andrew Ball, gaining a First Class BMus (Hons), and the MMus and Artist Diploma with Distinction.  He went on to be the Richard Carne Junior Fellowship in Performance at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance 2012-13.  

Christopher teaches at Godolphin School. We look forward to seeing you at 7:30pm

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Next meeting

Our next meeting will be this Monday, 27th February, when Jon Hampton will be presenting a fascinating insight into the colourful life of Alma Schindler – a woman who had an immense influence on music and the creative arts. Starting at 7:30 as usual and free parking outside the door.

We hope we will be able to welcome you on 27th February.

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Scriabin

Our next meeting will be on Monday 21st November 2022 at 7.30 when Simon Nicholls from the Scriabin Society will explore aspects of the work of Alexander Scriabin. Simon is a leading authority on this composer and we are delighted that he has agreed to come to Salisbury for this presentation.

Looking ahead our last meeting before Christmas will be on 5th December when Ruth Barlow will present  ‘Christmas Crackers’ – her classical music quiz.

We hope we will be able to welcome you on Monday and on 5th December.

ET

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Music in eighteenth century London

This was the title of a presentation by Ruth Barlow which included a range of music popular in that century. London at that time was a rapidly growing city and the largest in Europe. The country was becoming prosperous as a result of the growing empire and people were looking for entertainment which would of course have included music.

Music was also coming out of the great houses and into the public sphere with an ever-increasing number of public concerts. Indeed, it was noted that if you wanted to learn about music you went to Paris or Italy, if you wanted to earn a living, you came to England.

The evening started with a performance of Corelli’s Concerto Grosso No 8 (excerpts) and ended with the last movement of Haydn’s Symphony No 4 nicknamed the ‘London’. This framing so to speak seemed to sum the century up with Corelli’s piece echoing the previous century and Haydn’s symphony, written in 1795, which ended it and gave hints of what was to come.

In between, we heard pieces by Handel, JC Bach, Thomas Arne, and William Boyce. We also heard part of the Beggar’s Opera, hugely popular in its day receiving 62 performances in its first season, on a recording directed by Ruth’s husband Jeremy which must be a first for the Society.

Music from men only ‘catch clubs’ was also performed. Today we would call them rounds but they are centuries old and involve singers coming in one by one singing the same melody. We heard examples by Henry Purcell and JS Smith sung by the Hilliard ensemble.

A sad moment was a Violin Sonata in A major by Thomas Linley, and English prodigy born in Bath who was certainly destined for great things. He was a friend of Mozart and they met and became friends in Italy. Unfortunately, he died at the tender age of 22 thus ending what was likely to have been a successful career.

Altogether a well put together programme and an interesting evening.

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New programme

The new programme for 2022 – 23 is available and the print version can be found in the Library, TIC, and the Oxfam music Room. We have some outside speakers including someone from the Scriabin Society and old friends returning with new topics.

There will be a coupon in the programme entitling you to a free evening* for those who are curious about what we do. Keep an eye on this site – better still put it into your favourites – and we look forward to seeing you when we kick off again in the autumn.

*can only be used once

January meeting

Our next meeting will be on Monday 30th January 2023. 

Jeremy Barlow’s  topic is Sergio Celibidache: the greatest conductor of the 20th Century?, in which he will present and discuss live recordings of the controversial Romanian conductor’s work, from his early career as conductor of the post-war Berlin Philharmonic, to his final tenure in charge of the Munich Philharmonic until his death in 1996 . 

The following meeting on 13th February 2023 be our Members’ Evening. 

All members are invited to select a piece of music, of up to 10 minutes, to have played.  This can either be your own CD which you bring, or a link to a YouTube recording.  In either case, so we can draw up a schedule in advance, please will you bring details on Monday or send details to Robin Lim email: robert.lim@virginmedia.com as soon as possible.

We hope we will be able to welcome you on 30t January.

Next meeting

Second half of the season starts soon

The second half of our current season will start on Monday 30th January 2023

Jeremy Barlow’s  topic is “Sergio Celibidache: the greatest conductor of the 20th Century?” in which he will present and discuss live recordings of the controversial Romanian conductor’s work, from his early career as conductor of the post-war Berlin Philharmonic, to his final tenure in charge of the Munich Philharmonic until his death in 1996. 

The following meeting on 13th February 2023 be our Members’ Evening. 

All members are invited to select a piece of music, of up to 10 minutes, to have played.  This can either be your own CD which you bring, or a link to a YouTube recording.  In either case, so we can draw up a schedule in advance, please will you bring details on 30th January or send details to Robin Lim email: robert.lim@virginmedia.com

Change to the programme

Looking further ahead, because 8th May 2023 will now be a bank holiday, we have had to amended the programme and have moved Alan Forshaw’s presentation “Like father like son” to Monday 5th June 2023

We hope we will be able to welcome you on 30th January.

Christmas meeting

Our next meeting will be on Monday 5th December 2022 at 7.30 when Ruth Barlow will be gently challenging us with ‘Christmas Crackers’ – her classical music quiz. Ruth’s presentation last year was a great success, so we are looking forward to this years. Non-members will be very welcome and entry is only £3.

It will be our last meeting in 2022. 

We will resume in the new year on Monday 30th January 2023 when Jeremy Barlow will be presenting: “Sergio Celibidache: the greatest conductor of the 20th Century?”

November meeting

Music from the Southern Hemisphere

Our next meeting will be on Monday 7th November 2022 at 7.30 when Ed Tinline will be presenting Music from the Southern Hemisphere.  In this session he will focus on music in, and from, southern Africa.

Looking ahead, after this we have two further meetings before we break for Christmas:

21st November when Simon Nicholls from the Scriabin Society will explore aspects of the work of Alexander Scriabin, and

5th December when Ruth Barlow will present  Christmas Crackers – her popular classical music quiz.

We hope we will be able to welcome you on 7th November and to subsequent meetings this season.