Members’ evening

A range of interesting music from members

Members’ evening on November 14th produced a wide range of interesting, not to say eclectic, offerings from members.  Clearly, as a group, we listen to a wide range of sources and this was reflected in the music played.

Derek Bourgeois. Picture: YouTube

First off was a trombone concerto by Derek Bourgeois, born in 1941 and this piece was composed in 1988.  We heard the 3rd movement which showed the incredible versatility of the instrument played by Christian Lindberg.

Next – and a complete break in time and tone after the flamboyance of the trombone piece – we heard some selected pieces from the Well-Tempered Clavier by Bach.  Quite what instrument these were written for as there is no instrument called the clavier but it is likely they were for clavichord, harpsichord or small organ.  They were composed for purposes of tuition and to teach feeling as well as technique.

A complete change again with the title theme to the Carpetbaggers by Elmer Bernstein.  Bernstein was a prolific composer for the film industry and his scores include 10 Commandments, The Magnificent 7 and the Great Escape.  This was an arrangement by Lalo Schifrin.

Renee Fleming. Picture: Broadwayworld.com

Next, Korngold, a prodigy and prolific composer and from his opera Die Stadt, we heard the lovely Gluck, Das mir Verlieb sung by Renée Fleming.

Source: en-wiki

Female composers are not that common and so it was a pleasure to be introduced to Marie Jaëll and her Cello Concerto from 1882.  She was a pupil of Camille Saint-Saëns and Liszt.  Marie Jaëll probably represents the most authoritative and accomplished expression of the nineteenth century woman musician.  In spite of her coming from the provinces and despite the heavy social restrictions imposed on artists of her gender, she nonetheless succeeded in being recognized as a virtuoso, a composer and as a teacher.  Support from her husband – the Austrian pianist Alfred Jaëll – greatly contributed to the positive reception of her initial works for the piano, but it was by herself, armed with her talent and her resolve in the latter part of her life, that she faced up to the Parisian hurly-burly in which she proved herself to be one of its distinctive figures. While her learning method is still taught in various different countries, little interest thus far has been shown in her music, which in the greater part is held in the Bibliothèque Nationale et Universitaire in Strasbourg. Formidable and ambitious symphonic works are revealed on this book-cd as well as a significant facet of her compositions for the piano [Source; Wikipedia].

We then heard an extract from Schubert’s Piano Trio No 2 in E flat.  Also by contrast – and harking back to the Venetian evening last month, part of Marcello’s music based on Psalm 11.

Rameau is not a composer we have heard much of at the Society so it was interesting to hear the lively Musette and Tambourin en rondeau pour Terpsicore.  Not much is known about his life and he was fairly obscure for many years.  There has been something of a revival in recent years and his pieces now appear in concerts.

Another American composer – albeit of Armenian and Scottish descent – is Alan Hovhaness who was another prolific composer who was very popular in the ’50s and ’60s but is less heard today.

Finally, a familiar composer to the Society – Gerald Finzi and his Romance for String Orchestra.  There is something in Finzi’s music that seems to capture a sense of a pre First World War world of lazy afternoons in the country.

Next meeting on 28 November on Mozart.

 

 

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.

Image result for haydn
Haydn

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.

Casals Quartet

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!

 

 

Next meeting

The next meeting takes place tonight, 28 November when Peter Curbishley will be presenting ‘Mozart’s last year’.  Mozart died in December 1791 and the last year of his life was full of incident and great music.  Some masterpieces including the Requiem and the Magic Flute were composed as well as La clemenza da Tito.

Many people have been influenced by the Peter Shaffer play, Amadeus which, although entertaining, was full of nonsense.  The presentation will try and give some of the facts surrounding his last year and of course, play some of the music …

Mozart
Two evenings devoted to this composer

Venice: more than Vivaldi

One might be forgiven for thinking that the only composer of note to emerge from the city state of Venice was Vivaldi.  His Four Seasons is relentlessly played in shops and on Classic FM along with Eine Klein Nachtmusik by Mozart.  Last night, Peter Horwood showed that in fact the Venice school produced a huge range of composers and that the city was a pathbreaker in several musical forms.

He went right back to the fourteenth century with some Gregorian chants and pieces of choral music by Marchettus de Padua, Ave corpus sanctum; Francesco Landini, motet principium nobilissime; and Johannes Ciconia, motet: Venecie Mundi Splendor.  Some of this music was composed for ceremonial purposes, some for religious.

Monteverdi picture: Wikipedia

As the evening went on, it was interesting to see the development of style and the addition of orchestral instruments to the choral works.  The first operas were written here and indeed some composers seem to have composed prodigious numbers of them.  Monteverdi featured and included an extract from one of his operas La Favola d’rfeo and the ritornello, Dal mio Permesso amoto. 

One of the composers who impressed the audience was Tamaso Albinoni and his Concerto No 2 for oboe and strings in D minor from which we heard the enchanting Adagio.  The three movement concerto form which we know so well today was first developed in Venice.

The historical context was also interesting with the observation that as Venice’s economic fortunes declined by contrast, the artistic life flourished.  One wondered if there could be a similar thing going on today …

Venice eventually got conquered by the invasion by Napoleon but even so, musical life went on and the evening finished with a composition by Malipiero (1882 – 1973) Gabrieliana – Allegro vivace.  In modern times, composers have visited the City and composed works there.  These include Wagner, Stravinsky, and Britten.

A superb presentation by Peter and fascinating to see and hear the development of style and composition over seven hundred years.

And not a note of Vivaldi …

Nest meeting of 31 October

Early stereo recordings

The last presentation was by Robin Lim on the subject of early stereo recordings.  We are so used to stereo sound now – either through loud speakers or headphones – that we forget that there was a time when sound was in mono only.  We also think that it is a fairly modern invention: modern in the sense of 60’s when stereo records appeared.  It was an example of technology being ahead of its market in that, although the recordings existed, few people could afford the means to play them.

In fact Robin revealed, stereo existed at the end of the nineteenth century in France.  This was at the Paris Electrical Exhibition in 1881.  Separate telephone lines were used to convey the two tracks and a company was set up to exploit the technology which survived until after the Great War.

Leopold Stokowski – Picture BBC

But it was in the ’30s that stereo started to make its mark and this was linked to parallel developments in being able to store sound for playing later.  An example from this era was Leopold Stokowski playing an excerpt of Die Walkerie by Wagner from 1932.  The recording was surprisingly good but with a degree of background noise.  Nevertheless, the vigour of the recording and the balance between the two speakers was excellent.

An Englishman, Anthony Blumlein, perfected the single track system and with developments in America, the modern stereo record was born.  From 1934, a recording of Sir Thomas Beecham playing part of Mozart’s Jupiter symphony and the quality of the recording was outstanding.  Some modern filtering had probably been applied by even so, it was eminently listenable to.  Sir Thomas once said ‘The English do not like music but they absolutely love the noise it makes!’

Film music on the other hand was developing rapidly and soon had 8 tracks on which to record.  We heard Stokowski again with the Russian dance from the film Fantasia which was made before the war.

During the war, the Allies listened to German radio and were surprised to hear recorded

Walter Gieseking.  Picture: Pininterest

music of high quality being transmitted.  When the war ended there was a rush to find out how the Germans had done it and they had indeed made great technical advances.  Unfortunately, a lot of the recordings were in the Russian sector and most disappeared after the war.  One at least survived and this was Gieseking playing Beethoven’s the Emperor concerto with the Berlin Radio Orchestra, and the sound and playing was simply outstanding.  Indeed, one had to remind oneself that this was a recording from the war and not a modern cd.

Robin also touched on ‘accidental stereo’.  This is where in the early days two recordings were made as a kind of insurance in case one of the machines failed.  Modern technology has enabled these two be blended together to give a stereophonic effect.  Apparently discs were sent to Elgar after the recording was done and he kept them and they have survived.  This has enabled the two recordings to be blended and as an example, we heard an extract from the ‘cello concerto.  We also heard Elgar conducting a version of ‘Oh God our help in ages past’.  This was made in February 1928.  The sound was authentic but the stereo was not so evident.  Even so, a remarkable achievement.

It was a fascinating evening, in which Robin married the development of a technology with the sound it produced.

Before the meeting we had a brief agm.  All the officers were reelected en bloc.  The Society made a small surplus in the year.  The chair thanked all those who opened up, did the refreshments, prepared the programme and also the members who continue to support us.  Over 2,000 people have visited this Web site.  New members are always welcome.  Copies of the programme are in the Oxfam music room, the Tourism Information Centre in Salt Lane and the Collector’s Room in Endless Street.

Next meeting on 17 October.

 

 

 

 

 

Next meeting

The next meeting of the Society will take place on Monday 3rd October at 7:30 as usual.  It will be preceded by a short agm and then there will be a presentation by Robin Lim on the subject of early stereo recordings.  Older readers may recall the days when stereo started to make its appearance in the home.  There used to be salesmen who would come to your home and install a gramophone to demonstrate this wonderful sound experience.  One recording designed to show off the effect was of a steam train rushing past – first in one speaker and then in the other.  Robin probably won’t be playing us that but it should be interesting to hear the early recordings using what was then, new technology.

New season starts

The new season got off to a good start with a presentation entitled The Power of Mysticism in Music by Ian Lace.  Ian was one of the founder members of the Society (not called that then) so we were pleased to welcome him back.  He chose pieces where a sense of something beyond the composer was present in the music.   It was interesting that most of the pieces – with one exception in fact – were English composers.  Whether this means composers from these shores are more susceptible to these influences is probably unlikely although it was noticeable that several had experience either the first or second world wars.

The pieces played were:

  • Adagio from Elgar’s Symphony No 1
  • Bax, Symphony No 3
  • Finzi Intimations of Mortality
  • Bach: Chaconne
  • The Romanza from Vaughan William’s Symphony No 5
  • Elgar again the time the Kingdom Pentecost and finishing with
  • Delius Songs of Farewell

Well not quite finishing there because he finished with Louis Armstrong singing What a Wonderful World.

An excellent evening and an all too rare opportunity to hear the music of Bax.

The next meeting is on 3 October and is on early stereo recordings.  It will be preceded by a brief agm.

New season

By now, existing members will have received their invitation letter and programme for the 2016/17 season.  We are pleased with what we have in the programme which includes a ‘live’ event and outside speakers on Bruckner and Delius.  We have stayed away from Bruckner because his symphonies are on a massive scale but we are delighted that Terry Barfoot has risen to the challenge to give us a presentation on this important composer.  Proms listeners will have had a treat this year with several of his works being performed.

If you are new to this site we hope you will give us a try and if you just want to come along to an evening – because you have a particular interest in a composer for example – then it is only £3 to help cover costs.

One of our guiding principles is to widen knowledge of the musical world and speakers will often try to introduce unfamiliar pieces, either by composers who are almost forgotten or less well known pieces by major composers.

Parking is easy with plenty of space and we are within walking distance of the town centre.