Memories of a clarinettist

March 2025

The presentation this month was from a retired clarinettist speaking about his life in various orchestras and more generally as a musician. Peter Jarvis started by discussing the instrument itself which is not a chromatic one so originally was quite limited in its repertoire. The instrument went through a major redesign in France at the beginning of the nineteenth century when the Boehm system was introduced. Boehm himself had little to do with the design however. This provided a range of keys and enabled it widen its range for playing. A personal note here and that is that I was taught the clarinet and my teacher had what he termed the ‘Simple’ system (possibly a simplified German instrument) with far fewer keys but he was nevertheless an accomplished player. There are many different types, sizes and pitches of the instrument – probably around 10 in all.

The instrument has a single reed and they all come from the town of Fréjus in the South of France. Peter grew up in Oxford and was fortunate to enjoy a rich social milieu. He met the late Colin Davis (later Sir Colin) who was himself a former clarinettist (they get everywhere) who encouraged him. Thence to the Royal Academy of Music. The first piece to be played was by Gerald Finzi, a movement from his Clarinet Concerto. This is Finzi’s most performed work.

Peter left the Academy to become the principle at Royal Saddlers Wells, a real accomplishment. He described how they toured a lot and a large amount of travelling was involved since performances were arranged up and down the country. In the orchestra pit in an opera house he said, the wind instruments are under the stage, unable to hear the singers which does make timing and coordination difficult. On tour by contrast, they were on the same level in front of the stage and actually see and hear what’s going on.

Touring posed its own problems because for some mysterious reason, the instrumentalists were the last to hear where the next performance was to be held. This often meant all the available accommodation was already taken. Desperate to find somewhere to sleep in Leeds, he asked the police for help and was taken to an address where he was provided with a bed. In the morning there was knock on the door and a young lady came in with a cup of tea. Next morning, the same thing happened with a different young lady. Could get use to this Peter thought, but then he discovered – it was a brothel.

The second piece was the final movement from Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet. What was special was that it was a recording made in the barn adjacent to Peter and his wife Jane’s house in the South West of France. The recording – despite being recorded on a cassette recorder – was of excellent quality. The composition was written for his friend the clarinettist Anton Stadler, as was Mozart’s last instrumental composition the Concerto, who were both members of the same Viennese lodge. The score was lost but was later believed to have been pawned by Stadler. It was written for another member of the clarinet family the Basset horn which is longer and slightly lower pitched. The ‘horn’ refers to the curved nature of the instrument’s mouthpiece. [I have heard the concerto played on this instrument at the Proms and it is significantly different experience].

Peter described his later career playing with the Liverpool Phil and in a variety of West End shows. He described working to produce what are called ‘library albums’ and these are where freelance musicians compose and record music for use in films, TV shows and advertisements. Further pieces were Mozart’s Wind Quintet, and Matthew Arnold’s Divertimento.

It was a truly interesting evening because although presenters can all play music from CDs, here was someone who was part of the CDs, who has actually created music and who’s life was about producing it for us to enjoy. We even had a short piece composed by him. The mixture of music and anecdote was a joy and must be fairly unique to the Society.

Peter Curbishley

Next meeting on 7 April and is on the music of Francis Poulenc

Tonight’s meeting

March 2025

Our next meeting will be tonight, Monday 24th March, when we shall welcome Peter Jarvis who will be reminiscing about his life in the orchestra pit as a clarinettist.

At the following meeting on 7th April Peter Curbishley will be discussing the somewhat overlooked French Composer Francis Poulenc.

I hope we can welcome you to one or both of these evenings.

PC

William Mathias

Excellent presentation on this largely forgotten composer

March 2025

One of the puzzles of musical life is why some composers seem to disappear from the repertoire. One thinks of Bruckner who enjoyed great popularity in his day at the end of the nineteenth century then was forgotten for many decades. He began to be appreciated again in the 60s. Bach no less suffered a long period of silence until Mendelssohn brought him out of the shadows.

Last evening we heard a range of compositions by the Welsh composer William Mathias. Unknown to several us, he composed a wide range of material including symphonies, concerti, choral and an opera. Lindsay Dannatt provided several examples from his compositions many of which were accomplished and of great interest. It is true that some have entered the repertory such as the Harp Concerto from which we heard an extract, the Piano Concerto No 3, likewise and the Organ Concerto.

Other works were extracts from Symphony No 1; the Horn Concerto and Divertimento for String Orchestra. Choral works included This World’s Joie and Songs of William Blake.

Mathias’ musical language embraced both instrumental and vocal forms with equal success, and he addressed a large and varied audience both in Britain and abroad. He was widely honoured in the academic word being awarded an Honorary DMus by Westminster Choir College, Princeton USA in 1987 and he was made CBE in the 1985 New Year’s Honours. He was honoured in Wales, his home country as well. He died in 1992 at a relatively young age.

Although some of the references to him, in Groves for example, refer to the influence of Bartok and Hindemith, he had a definite ‘voice’ and was not in any way derivative.

We were enormously grateful to Lindsay for bringing this composer to our attention and for an informed selection of his works.

Peter Curbishley

Next meeting

February 2025

The next meeting is on Monday 24th as usual starting at 7:30. It is called A Walk in the Woods which may sound bucolic but it is a programme of music focusing on woodwind. Wind instruments, based on vibrating reeds, add colour and texture to an orchestra and composers gradually added them to their compositions.

In the nineteenth century, there were many improvement to their design with more keys added to enable the range to be widened and more fluid playing.

The second half of the season has got off to a brilliant start. At our first meeting in January, Peter Horwood delved into the Polish music scene and came up with a number of hidden gems few of whom any of us had heard before.

Last meeting was given by Ute Schwarting who focused on Brahms and related his music to her life story. Two fascinating talks with quite different themes.

PC

Next meeting

February 2025

The next meeting is this evening, 10 February at 7:30 as usual. It will be on the subject of Brahms and Ute Schwarting will be talking about her personal journey with the composer. Many people have a personal attachment to a composer which sometimes comes from having their eyes opened to classical music by one of their works. Brahms of course needs no introduction but listening to Ute’s reflections will be interesting.

PC

Next meeting: tonight

January 2025

Our first session of 2025 will be tonight, Monday 27th January 2025 when Peter Horwood will present “A Polish Panorama” – a summary and brief survey of Polish composers from medieval times to the 21st Century.

Following that on 10th February, we shall welcome Ute Schwarting to tell us about her personal journey with the music of Johannes Brahms.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Christmas Quiz!

December 2024

The first half of the season ended in cracking style with a quiz ably put together by Ruth Barlow. Music you won’t be surprised to learn, formed the basis of the questions which taxed the team’s knowledge. We had to guess both composer and piece with some questions on what linked the different compositions. There was a round based on photos of musicians. A challenging round was guessing the end of compositions. It was very much enjoyed and were very grateful for the work and cunning that Ruth had put into compiling the questions.

It brings to an end the first half of our season which has been a great success with a varied and interesting programme. We start again in the New Year on 27 January with an interesting first session enabling us to polish up our knowledge of Polish composers.

PC

Christmas Quiz!

Next meeting will be our Christmas quiz

November 2024

Our next meeting on 2nd December will be our last before Christmas, and we will be holding our Christmas Quiz.  This will be our second such classical music Quiz and, as previously, conducted again by Ruth Barlow  So don’t be put ORFF, come BACH for more!                                  

In the New Year we will resume on Monday 27th January 2025 when Peter Horwood will present “Polish Panorama” – a summary and brief survey of Polish composers from Medieval times to the 21st Century. 

We hope to see you on 2nd December, and in the New Year. 

Recent meetings

November 2024

The Society’s two recent meetings on 21 October and 4 November had a range of interesting music. The first was a members’ evening where members bring along pieces which have interested them or they have discovered for themselves.

This was preceded by our agm which went smoothly enough. The Society is holding its own at present with adequate funds and a healthy programme of events. Indeed plans are afoot for the 2024/25 season with some potentially interesting ideas. The Chair of the society said in the context of reduced funding for the arts that ‘we were keeping the flame of great music alight’.

Members brought a range of pieces one of which was an extract from Gloria Coates’ Symphony number 14. Gloria was from Wisconsin but spent a great deal of time in Europe. She died last year.

Gerald Finzi is a somewhat neglected British composer and few of his works appear on the repertoire these days. One composition which gets an outing now again is his clarinet concerto the first movement of which – an allegro – was played.

The Argentinian violinist Manfredo Kraemer performed an unusual Peruvian piece on the viola di gamba.

One most surprising piece was a Beethoven string quartet played on saxophones by the Sinta quartet. This really worked and shows that compositions can work in different genre and provide fresh insights.

We ended with a performance of a movement from Bruckner’s Symphony No 8. There are many recordings of this great work but this was by von Karajan dating from 1944. Many of these recordings disappeared into the Soviet Union after the war after prolonged negotiations, many have tricked out. As ever with a von Karajan it is a remarkable rendition all the more remarkable bearing in mind the circumstances in Berlin at the time. The recording is incomplete.

4 November

Due to the speaker being unwell, this was a change to the published programme. We were fortunate that Jeremy Barlow stepped into the breach and provided a programme which was both erudite and enjoyable. Entitled Theme and Variations, he explained the importance of variations in the musical world and gave examples of different types.

The standout recording was the chaconne from the partita for violin by Bach played by Victoria Mullova. You may be familiar with this piece but as Jeremy said, the phrasing of her playing made this an outstanding performance. It is thought that it was composed following Bach’s return home to find his wife had died during his absence.

Another piece was the Adagio from Beethoven’s quartet in E minor which has six variations (I think!) some of the breaks between them difficult to spot.

Other pieces included Brahms’s variations on a theme by Paganini, a composition by William Byrd and a movement from Vaughan Williams’ 6th Symphony.

It was an extremely interesting evening and members were grateful to Jeremy for putting it together at short notice.

The next meeting is on 18 November.

Peter Curbishley