Tag: recorded music

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

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

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

Meeting tonight

The Society’s penultimate meeting takes place tonight, Monday 29th April, and is entitled The curse of the ninth. Some symphonic composers have reached nine but not quite managed, or finished, a tenth. Alan Forshaw examines the myth that of why nine composers couldn’t or wouldn’t write a tenth symphony.

Starts at 7:30 as usual.

Next meeting

The next meeting of the Society is tomorrow, Monday 20 November starting at 7:30 as usual. It will be a change to the published programme due to unforeseen circumstances and will be on the subject of modern music. It is the last presentation on this subject by Peter Horwood who has found some gems from the world of recent compositions.

Only £3 on the door and there is ample parking outside.

Next meeting

Next meeting and changes to the programme

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we have had to make some changes to our programme involving the next three meetings.

On Monday 6th November, Peter Horwood will be presenting Off the Beaten Track in which he takes us on an informal journey along some less familiar musical byways.

On Monday 20th November, Peter again will be presenting, this time the third in his series on 20th Century Music. [This was due to be presented at the previous meeting].

Our final programme this season is slightly changed and will be Christmas Special in which members of the SRMS committee will present a range of pieces with a seasonally appropriate theme.

We look forward to seeing you at these evenings.

New season has got underway

Next meeting on 6 November 2023

The Society’s new season started in September and we have an interesting programme again this year. We have a wide ranging series of evenings including music by Puccini, Gustav Holst, the best of the 20th Century and on why so few composers managed a tenth symphony. We also have two members’ evenings and a Christmas quiz.

You can download the programme here or printed copies will be in the Library, Oxfam (upstairs) and the Tourism Information Centre next week.

The Society meets once a fortnight on a Monday evening starting at 7:30 and we aim to finish at 10 pm. It meets in the Guides’ Centre in St Ann Street although access is from the rear off Friary Lane. Parking is free and it is accessible for people with mobility difficulties.

prog-23-24Download

If you want to speak on the phone then contact Ruth on T: 01722 782387 or M: 07759 785760

Leopold Stokowski

Fascinating talk on this conductor

At its meeting on 27 March, Robin Lim gave a fascinating talk about this famous conductor. If you did not know anything about his life story, you would assume from his showmanship and conducting history, that he was a quintessential American. Indeed, as Robin explained, he went to some pains to conceal his age and his place of birth, at times claiming it to have been Poland or Pomerania. In fact he was born in the rather more mundane St Johns Wood in London in 1882.

For many older people in the audience and more widely, their introduction to classical music came from the 1940 Disney film Fantasia which was recently reworked and reissued. This combination of film and music was in its day, quiet a feat and getting the sound to emerge from the right (correct) part of the screen required a considerable degree of technical expertise. Stereo was in its infancy at the time and the film was the first successful attempt to bring multi-track sound to the cinema. We sometimes forget today, surrounded as we are by the wonders of technology, that it was not always thus: I can recall seeing Fantasia in Manchester as a child and being enthralled by the sound as well as the animations. Fantasia’s remixed multi track soundtrack is still extant, the original takes prior to the remixing have been lost unfortunately .

Stokowski had a colourful life which included having three wives one of whom was Gloria Vanderbilt as well as a number of affairs including one – it is alleged – with Greta Garbo.

He was keen to promote new music and one piece played was the second movement from Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 – a 1958 recording which sounded amazing considering its age. Shostakovich was lucky to be alive and was only able to leave Russia because his prestige in the West led Stalin to give him permission to leave.

Another interesting item was a recording of Stokowski rehearsing Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony. Tchaikovsky’s parent’s original name was Chaiko as they hailed from Ukraine: interesting in view of attempts to ban his music after the Russian invasion of that country. But I digress.

We heard his impressive arrangement for orchestra of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor played by the Czech Philharmonic. Indeed, all the recordings we heard demonstrated Stokowski’s ability to get the most from an orchestra, particularly the string sections, a point Robin made. On the subject of orchestras, we take for granted the current arrangement of orchestras with strings on the left cellos on the right etc. but this arrangement is down to Stokowski after much experimentation with different arrangements.

He also appeared in films including One Hundred Men and a Girl, (1937) – the mind boggles – as well as Fantasia.

Towards the end of his life, he returned to the UK and decided to live in Nether Wallop, Hampshire, buying Place Farm House in 1972. He had a fatal heart attack in 1977. Local residents recall his strange habit of taking a stroll around the village wearing a sinister full-length opera coat. Another curiosity was his habit of speaking in a curious pseudo East European accent: odd since he was born in London.

A truly interesting evening and Robin had gone to great efforts to research his subject, a point made by the chair in his vote of thanks.

Peter Curbishley

Robin provided an extract written by Michael Draper from the September 2009 issue of Wallop Parish News, reproduced with permission, and some parts of this review were taken from that.