Many older readers may well have come to classical music via the Disney film Fantasia in which a visual story was accompanied by various classical pieces. The last presentation via Zoom and YouTube looked at the life of the conductor of the music, Leopold Stokowski and featured other performances he conducted and an interview with him. An extremely interesting programme carefully put together by the chair of SRMS, Peter Horwood.
As well as the Rite of Spring (from Fantasia), we heard the Adagio by Samuel Barber, an orchestral version of Bach’s Air on a G String and Ave Maria.
Not as good as meeting in person of course but these sessions have their own value in that we can watch performances and interviews via YouTube. New and existing members are welcome and to get details of the next meeting on 22 March, please leave a message here, on Facebook, or contact a committee member if you know one of them. We look forward to seeing you.
A members’ evening following the agm doesn’t sound like a barrel of fun but in fact it was an outstanding evening with some interesting pieces. We must thank Robin for assembling the programme for the Society.
First up was the first half of Brahms’s magisterial Piano Concerto No1 played by Stephen Kovacevich. This can be ‘overplayed’ and I have been to concerts where the pianist seems determined to put the concerto to death but what we heard of this version was finely balanced and it was a pity we could not have heard the whole of it.
Second up was Joseph Kosma’s Les Feuilles Mortes sung by Gigi Marga – a version with the composer can be seen here: https://youtu.be/12BRQQd7myM
Few may have heard of Ginette Neveu, a French violinist but her playing is quite distinctive and, at the risk of sounding like a Classic FM announcer, extremely smooth. The sound was somewhere between a violin and a viola, quite magical and the adagio from Sibelius’s Violin Concerto was wonderful.
Beatrice and Benedict was Berlioz’s last opera and had some success in Germany. He wrote it soon after the Trojans disaster and we heard Je vais le voir – Il me revient fidèle in a performance by the LSO and conducted by the late Sir Colin Davies.
The first half ended with the amazingly difficult Violin Sonata in G minor – 3rd movement “Devil’s Trill Sonata” by Tartini the inspiration for which supposedly came to him in a dream.
In the second half we had a audio-visual presentation of Gigue Fugue BWV 577 by JS Bach, played on the organ and which was the music played at the presenter’s marriage. This mode of playing music was the first for the Society.
Few will have heard of the woman composer and pianist Guirne Creith not least because although not prolific, many or her compositions were lost after her death. She had a very varied life, not just as a musician but – following her move to France – as a food writer under the name of Guirne van Zylen. Her best known work is a Violin Concerto from which we heard the Adagio.
After Andantino from Sibelius’s 3rd Symphony, The Man I Love by Gershwin played by Don Shirley. Shirley was a precocious musician who was the subject of the 2018 film Green Book. Being black, he had to take a bodyguard with him when he performed in the southern states of the USA.
A most interesting and varied evening with a mixture of the well known and some more or less completely unknown works.
Peter Curbishley
The next meeting is on 11 November and is a presentation on some less well known British composers. 7:30 start as usual.
Members’ evening had a wide range of interesting pieces
Last night’s members’ evening had a wide range of music – eclectic even – from the traditional, to some pieces with jazz influences and a rarity from South America.
The traditional selections were from the Well Tempered Clavier by Bach and the chosen pieces were from Book 4 – the most difficult to perform. Angela Hewitt was the pianist and her recordings show great skill and fluidity. The other traditional selection was of Mozart’s first violin concerto the K207. Composed when he was probably 17 it is one of five that he composed although there are possibly two more. Paper analysis suggests an earlier date than originally supposed.
Completely different was Michael Torke’s Javelin one of a series of pieces exploring the relationship between music and colour. Termed a ‘vitally inventive composer’ by the Financial Times, Javelin is a ‘sonic Olympiad composed for the Atlanta Olympics.
Jazz influences were clearly at work with two acoustic guitar compositions by Clive Carroll The Kid from Clare and Black Nile. Guitar phenomenon Clive Carroll’s masterful compositions, coupled with his versatility and unparalleled technical virtuosity, have rendered him one of today’s most admired and respected guitarists.
Diego José de Salazar is largely unknown and in writing this it was hard to find anything much about him. If you do know something, Wikipedia would like to hear from you I am sure. Bolivian, born in 1659 and his music is classical in style but quite unique. We heard Saiga el torillo hosquillo this was one of the hits of the evening.
Bantock’s The Frogs of Aristopanes would get the prize for the most curiously name piece of the evening but not only that, it was a version performed with a brass band, in this case the Grimethorpe Colliery band, said by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies to be ‘the finest band in the world’. They are performing in Sturminster Newton in Dorset in June.
The first half ended with Victoria de Los Angeles performing Piu Jesu from Faure’s Requiem.
The mystery piece turned out to be an orchestrated version of one of Debussy’s preludes by Colin Matthews. Two arias by Caruso, one from Rigoletto and the other from Othello, the latter sung with Tito Ruffo followed and the evening ended with Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams from a poem by George Meredith.
A truly amazing selection of pieces and the chair thanked Anthony for skillfully assembling them especially as he would have been unfamiliar with some. Evenings such as this can be a collection of hackneyed favourites with little that is unfamiliar. Although there were some well-known items, the unusual ones added considerable interest.
The second half of the season gets underway on Monday 4th February at 7:30 as usual with a presentation on organ music. We have not had such a presentation in recent years (if at all) and yet there is a large corpus of music written for this ‘king of instruments’. The music will included works in the 17th century and some written in modern times. At least one recording was made with the Cathedral’s organ.
This was the title of a presentation by Tim Rowe at the Society’s last meeting where he played a selection of the cantatas composed by JS Bach during his time in Leipzig. He was Kantor at the Thomas church.
Born in Eisenach in 1685, Bach had a difficult childhood being orphaned by the age of 10 and spent his early years living with one of his brothers.
Tim explained that despite his enormous output and his amazing genius, very little in fact is known about him as a person. Almost no letters survive and there is no contemporary biography. There is even some doubt about what he looked like.
Focusing on the Leipzig years, upon being appointed, Bach set about composing music for the full Lutheran liturgical year. This was an enormous task. Tim provided a circular calendar explaining the timetable for the various cantatas. They were produced in an almost production line process, starting on a Monday, finished by Thursday, copied on Friday, rehearsed on Saturday and then performed on Sunday.
The performances were quite unlike the concert halls of today. There was considerable noise and confusion as people and animals came and went. Churches would employ a whipper to keep control of the dogs. Services lasted hours. People were segregated according to class. It’s a wonder in all the confusion that he music was heard at all.
We use the word ‘cantata’ to describe these works yet it is not the word used by Bach himself. Often pieces had ordinary generic words to describe them such as ‘church music’ or ‘church piece.’ 216 of his compositions survive from this period as regrettably, many manuscripts were lost, indeed, it has been estimated that 40% are missing. Part of the problem might have been paper since this was a valuable commodity at the time, still being produced by hand.
Bach’s modern reputation – his ‘unfathomable genius’ as Tim put it – owes a lot to Felix Mendelssohn who worked hard to revive him. Had it not been for Mendelssohn, his music may have continued to languish in obscurity. Mendelssohn was distantly linked to the Bach family through his maternal grandmother who was taught harpsichord by one of Bach’s sons and who collected his manuscripts.
Tim played a range of the cantatas all performed by the English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi choir under the baton of John Eliot Gardiner. These were recorded in the year 2000, the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death.
This was a splendid evening listening to some wonderful works by this great composer.
If youhave arrived here having read the report in the Salisbury Journal, welcome. Our next meeting – the last this year – is on Monday 27th and you would be very welcome to come. £3 for non-members.
The last meeting was a members’ evening where each will present and play a piece which they particularly like and want to share with others. A wide variety of pieces were performed:
it was probably the first time in some years we had heard Wolf-Ferrari and in this case it was the last 2 movements from the Jewels of Madonna
Mozart followed with a rare outing of Varrei Spiegarvi o Dio, an aria interopolated into another, now lost opera.
we do not often hear the bassoon as a solo instrument but a piece by Weber – andante and Hungarian rondo showed the instrument off well. It can sound strained in the higher registers but the soloist managed to avoid this
back to Mozart and a movement from a quintet K593 he composed around a year before he died
Alec Roth has almost certainly never been played before and is a composer with a slight Salisbury connection. We heard an excerpt from string quintet #2
this was followed by some Schubert songs – always a favourite
Bach and two cantatas from his time in Leipzig – BWV 8 and 95
there was then a mystery piece and this defeated the audience. It was part of Symphony #4 by the Polish composer Schmidt-Kowalski and several were impressed by this extract.
the penultimate piece was a Chopin ballade and to finish
.. Mendelssohn’s Scherzo from the Midsummer Nights Dream, but played on two pianos
A very diverse programme with no clear theme except that they were pieces loved by the members.
This was a presentation by Salisbury violinist Frida Backman on music for the solo violin.
Perhaps the first thing to say is that there isn’t that much for the solo instrument. Beyond Bach one might be stumped to think of many solo works and although Kodály was mentioned and later his fellow Hungarian Bartók, apart from a few virtuoso performers, there are not many works of note. There is of course a huge repertoire of accompanied violin music and concertos.
The instrument was developed into what we see today in the sixteenth century in Cremona, Italy and one of the first masters was Amati. The instrument consists of no less than 70 parts.
Frida started with some early works by Nicola Matteis who was a violinist in the early eighteenth century and who composed pieces more advanced than his contemporaries. We then heard a piece by Tartini also of this era, and who was influential in teaching the instrument and wrote a treatise which may have influenced Mozart’s father.
The composer of a large amount of solo work was JS Bach and we heard several pieces by him including an arrangement by Fritz Kreisler in a 1904 recording of a partita with a piano accompaniment. We also heard pieces by Biber, Prokofiev, Ysaÿe, and Ravel’s Tzigane composed in the early ’20s.
A brilliant virtuoso of the early nineteenth century was Paganini who’s phenomenal abilities were said to derive from the devil. He was hugely successful and owned no less than 11 Stradivari violins. Two of his caprices were played, numbers 23 and 24.
Frida explained that development of the bow was crucial to the instrument’s success. As music moved out of the salon into the concert hall, more power and volume was needed and the modern bow enabled that to be achieved. However, many players still use a baroque style bow to achieve greater authenticity and Frida played two CDs of the same piece to illustrate the difference in tone.
Frida ended her presentation with a live rendition of a piece by a modern composer Zura Dzagnidze called Intruder composed in 2005. This she played against a backing track with herself.
A most interesting evening exploring the history of this most versatile of instruments.
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.
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.
The last meeting of Salisbury Recorded Music Society took place last nightMonday 23rd May 2016 at 7.30pm, in our usual venue. Jon Hampton presented ‘The art of the arranger’ including works by Boccherini arranged by Berio, Bach by Elgar, and Schubert by Britten. An excellent and interesting evening and there will be a full report soon.
There was a selection of records (as in vinyl) which have been kindly donated to the Society and these are available with members asked to make a small contribution as they see fit. They are listed below:
Composer
Piece
Orchestra
Schubert/ Beethoven
Symphony #8 and #5
Berlin PO, Maazel
Orff
Carmina Burana
Andre Previn, LSO
Tchaikovsky
Romeo & Juliet
J Pritchard, LPO
Festival of Carols
Bath Abbey
Festival of Lessons and carols
Kings College
Mendelsaohn
Scottish & Italian Sym
Solti, LSO
Mozart
Piano Concertos #20 #23
Brendel, Academy St M in the Fields
Bath Abbey organ
Various
Handel
Water Music
Boyd Neel and Orchestra
Mozart
Symphonies #29 #39
Colin Davies, S of London
Beethoven
Sonatas, Moonlight, Pathetique, #17
Albert Ferber
Mozart
Symphonies # 39 #40
Böhm, Vienna PO
Bruch & Beethoven
Violin Conc #1; Romances for V and orchestra
Oistrach, RPO
Various, Smyth, MacCunn
Music of the four countries
Gibson, Scottish Nat Orch
Messager
The two pigeons
Jacquillat, Orchestra de Paris
Boyce, W
The 8 symphonies
Faerber, Württbergberg Ch O
Bach
Brandenburg #4 #5 #6
Davison, Virtuoso of England
Brandenburg #1 #2 #3
do –
Holst
The Planets
Sargent, BBCSO
Chopin
Piano Concerto # 1
Pressler, Vienna State Opera
Vivaldi
4 seasons etc
Various
Tchaikovsky
Piano Conc #1
Makaloff, Hague PH Orch
Handel
Messiah
Sargent, RPO
Box sets
Gateway to the Classics and Opera
G & S
Overtures, Mikado, Gondoliers etc
Godfrey, New SO of London
G & S
Best of …
Walker, RPO
Most look to be in good condition and the discs I’ve looked at seem clean and unscratched. If you are interested in any of these please ring 01722 782382 and we can try and arrange delivery.
Salisbury Recorded Music Society 