September 2025
The new season got off to a flying start with a presentation called Murder, Mishap and Misfortune by Alan Forshaw. The title might lead you to believe this was a dour evening, mawkish even – far from it, Alan selected a range of pieces and to an extent, the unfortunate or sad ways the composers died was almost incidental.
We sometimes forget in our world of inoculation (soon to be changed by Donald Trump), health services and antibiotics, that life even into the early twentieth century was, to quote the Scottish philosopher, ‘nasty, brutish and short’. People died of things we would find surprising today. Whilst studying statistics for example I came across some historical death data and a lot of people died of something called ‘the fluxions’. Who found the cure I do not know. ‘Hissing fits’ was another cause of death. I don’t think people would go into a GP’s surgery today and say ‘doctor, I think I’ve got the fluxions’.
Back to the plot and we started with a scherzo by Alkan, an eccentric French composer of mainly piano pieces. Alan presented an evening featuring this composer a while ago. A prodigy, he entered the Conservatoire at 13 and was perhaps unlucky to be around at the same time as Chopin and Liszt. Turned down by the Conservatoire to be the professor of piano, he largely retired.
Alban Berg can be a little difficult to get to grips with. He was a contemporary of Schoenberg and Webern we heard two early songs which were a delight. The rise of the Nazis made life difficult and he moved out of Vienna. Unfortunately he was stung by an insect and died of blood poisoning.
Marcus Blitzstein is not a name familiar to many and Alan played two of his pieces. American, he was gifted and played a Mozart piano concerto at the age of 7. He was gay (but did get married) and whilst in a bar in Martinique trying to solicit a sailor, he was beaten up and later died of a ruptured liver. He is best remembered for the composition The Cradle will Rock.
Ernest Chausson is well known as a composer although he only composed a modest number of works. Alan chose the Chanson Perpétuelle for soprano, piano and string quartet. He was the son of a contractor who made his fortune redeveloping Paris for Haussmann. We admire Paris for its open layout perhaps not always realising that it wasn’t town planning which inspired the changes but the need for the police and gendarmerie to get a good line of fire against the frequent riots. He died young riding the recently invented bicycle and crashed into a wall, dying instantly.
The Trumpet Voluntary is a very well known piece often played at weddings and was composed by Jeremiah Clarke. Properly titled the ‘Prince of Denmark’s March‘ we heard that and ‘Praise the Lord O Jerusalem’. He fell in love with a female student of higher rank than himself and the tension led to him taking his own life.
Enrique Grenados is well known and we heard his exciting The Fandango of the Lamp. He was delayed from leaving New York and missed the boat to Spain catching one to Britain instead. Unfortunately, the ship was torpedoed by a U-boat and sank in the English Channel. Various accounts of how he died are around but one is that he tried to rescue his wife and because he was wearing a money belt filled with gold, he was unable to swim and sank to his death.
Another victim of the Nazis was Pavel Haas, a Czech composer born in Brno of part Jewish parents. A modest output of music and being very self-critical, only 19 have opus numbers. Originally sent to Theresienstadt he was subsequently transferred to Auschwitz where he was murdered.
Few may have heard of Mieczyslaw Karlowicz (pictured) and the excerpt from his Violin concerto in A major was impressive. He was strongly influenced by Tchaikovsky and later Wagner. Born in what is now Belarus he studied in Warsaw and Berlin. While on a skiing trip in the Tatra Mountains, he was hit by and avalanche and died. Not a large output but his orchestrations are praised.
Karel Komzak is not a name known to many. He was born in what is now the Czech Republic and was an active band leader. We heard the Overture to Operetta Edelweiss. One of his claims to fame was that a young musician who played in one of his orchestras was a certain Antonín Dvořák of whom you may have heard.
Leaving central and eastern Europe and to France and the music of Lully who was in fact born in Florence. He was composing during the Baroque period and many of his works are played today. He was a favourite of Louis IV and composed a number of operas and other music. He stabbed his foot with a conducting staff and a toe became infected. Refusing an amputation, infection set in and he died shortly after of gangrene. Alan played part of – appropriately enough – his Te Deum.
Few will have heard of Johann Schobert born, it’s not clear when and it’s not clear where either but somewhere in Germany. He came to Paris and composed many sonatas. His significance in the history of music was a meeting with the Mozarts who came to Paris as part of their grand tour. It appears that Mozart was strongly influenced by Schobert and used themes and some of his stylistic ideas in his piano concertos from that time. Schobert picked some mushrooms and was told by two restaurateurs that they were poisonous but decided to make soup from them anyway. They killed him and his wife and a doctor friend. There’s an old joke: what did the wife of a mushroom say at his funeral? ‘Shame, he was such a fungi’. His Quartet in F minor was a lively piece.
Colourful does not quite do justice to the life of Alessandro Stradella who was born in Bologna in 1643. Educated in Rome, in his day was well known and produced a number of operas and other works. He clearly had a taste for women and indulged in a number of affairs with many who were already married. He survived one assassination but died after the second.
To more modern times and to Canada: not often we hear music from there. Claude Vivier was born in 1948 in Montreal and spent a lot of time working on ethnic musical themes and a variety of modern themes. We heard a piece for soprano composed in 1973 Jesus Ebarme Dich. He was unashamedly gay and frequented gay bars in Paris. He was eventually murdered by a man called Dolzan. Vivier was a strange man and there is speculation he suffered from Tourette’s syndrome.
Finally, back to northern Europe and the music of Webern a contemporary of Berg (above). He composed a lot of works using the 12 tone scale and it would be fair to say, it takes some while to get to understand it. He was a student of Schoenberg. His death was particularly tragic. In September 1945, he returned home during the Allied occupation of Austria, he was shot and killed by an American Army soldier following the arrest of his son-in-law for black market activities. This incident occurred when, three-quarters of an hour before a curfew was to have gone into effect, he stepped outside the house so as not to disturb his sleeping grandchildren, and in order to enjoy a cigar given him that evening by his son-in-law. The soldier responsible for his death was U. S. Army cook who was overcome by remorse and died of alcoholism in 1955. Webern would not have understood what the American would have said to him. A kind of double tragedy.
A really fascinating evening and a chance to hear a range of music much of it not often heard.
The next meeting is on 6 October.
Peter Curbishley
Salisbury Recorded Music Society 