Tonight’s presentation will be on the music of the great Russian Composer, Shostakovich. 7:30 as usual.
Category: Group news
Next meeting – March
Next meeting
The next meeting of Salisbury Recorded Music Society will be held tonight, Monday 5th March 2018 at 7.30pm in the usual venue when Jon Hampton will present: “Earth, Air, Fire and Water – An exploration of how the elements have inspired composers from Haydn to Mahler and beyond.”
Hope to see you there. Free parking and £3 to non-members
Second half of the season kicks off soon
The second half of the season starts tonight, Monday 5 February and we are delighted to welcome Simon Coombs from the Vaughan Williams Society who is going to discuss and play music by this great English composer. Starts at 7:30 as usual and is only £3 to non-members. Parking is easy and free and details of how to find us are on the ‘Find us’ tab at the top of the site.
We look forward to welcoming existing members back also any new visitors.
Meeting tonight
Last meeting of the first half of the season tonight — 7:30 as usual
New Season
New season programme ready
The new season kicks off on 18 September with a presentation on Busoni by Christopher Guild. Busoni was a musician of great renown at the beginning of the last century but today has been largely forgotten. He was a pianist, teacher, composer and conductor. The presentation by Christopher should enlighten us to this Italian composer’s talents.
The full programme will be available on this site soon and hard copies will be available at the Oxfam Music Room, the Collector’s Room in Endless Street, and at the Tourism Information Office in Fish Row.
We look forward to seeing you for the new season.
Member’s evening
The next meeting takes place on Monday 8th of May and will be a member’s evening. If you have a particular piece you like or want to hear played then liaise with Anthony Powell. Usual place usual time.
Next meeting
The next meeting of the Society will be on Monday 20 March starting at 7:30 as usual and will a presentation 
by Ed Tinline on the development of woodwind. He will be playing a selection of pieces including wind soloists and also ensemble playing.
The committee will be meeting immediately prior to the main session. If members reading this have any points they would like the committee to consider, or you might be interested in presenting or co-presenting a session, please let one of the members know.
Next meeting
The second half of the season kicks off on Monday 6 February. Further details soon.
Forthcoming events
At Salisbury Recorded Music Society we are now into our Christmas and New Year break, and will start again in February 2017 with what promise to be really excellent presentations by several very good friends of the society:
On Monday 6 February, Angus Menzies will present “Fit for an Emperor: music at the Austrian court 1650 – 1750”.
On Monday 20 February, we shall host a live concert by David Davies (piano), with David Morgan (violin) and Warren Driffill (‘cello), exploring the piano trio.
On Monday 6 March, Frida Backman will be presenting “The solo violin in classical music”.
Meanwhile, can I mention that Frida Backman is giving a series of solo violin concerts, the first of which is this Thursday (1 December) at 7.30pm in St Martin’s Church, Salisbury (with pre concert talk at 7.
We hope you will be able to support some or all of these events. For details nearer the time, look at this Web site for any updates or changes.
The Golden Years
During the years 1781 – 1791 the residents of Vienna enjoyed a golden age. There was freedom of speech, the establishment of an open and tolerant society and even an end to the death penalty in the Hapsburg empire. Indeed, the enlightenment had truly arrived.
And the music: both Haydn and Mozart were alive producing between them, masterpieces at the rate of one every other month. 1791 saw the untimely death of Mozart of course (and Mozart’s last year will be the subject of a future presentation on 28th of November) and by now political events were beginning to have their effects in Austria.
Tim Rowe took us through some of these masterpieces with some carefully selected excerpts from the great works. He started with the Gran Partita by Mozart which is a serenade for 13 mostly wind instruments. Wind ensembles of various kinds were very popular at this time and the K361 is certainly the most popular.
This was followed by a Haydn string quartet, opus 33/1 played by the Casals Quartet (pictured). Haydn is considered the ‘father’ of the string quartet and the form had a profound influence on Mozart. Even though there are only 4 instruments, the form is extremely difficult to master and although Mozart could compose at great speed, modern paper studies show that he struggled to complete several of his own quartets.
Opera was hugely popular at this time and we heard extracts from several of Mozart’s pieces. These included the overture from The Marriage of Figaro, arias from Don Giovani and finally three arias from Cosi fan Tutti. For many, this is his finest opera, but strangely it was condemned by both Beethoven and Wagner.
Other pieces included part of the Mass in C minor and the piano sonata Alla Turca played on a forte piano.
A most interesting evening of a momentous period in musical history.
Apology
We must apologise to members for the problems we had with the keys to our normal venue. Unfortunately, we were given the wrong set of keys so we had to repair to Ed and Sue Tinline’s house to hold the meeting.
The next meeting is a member’s evening and is on 14 November at the usual place – assuming that is we can get in!
Salisbury Recorded Music Society 