Tag: Tosca. Finzi. English

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.

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Members evening

The Society met for the last time before Christmas and listened to selections by members of their favourites.  There was an extremely wide ranging and very interesting choice of music starting with a version of Ruslan and Ludmilla played by a horn ensemble.  Other items included the prelude to Mascagni’s opera William Ratcliff demonstrating that he was not just a ‘one opera’ composer.

Among other presentations was a mono recording of Bach’s The Well Tempered Clavier.  Bach composed these before the piano forte was invented so some modern renditions are not entirely faithful to the sort of sound he intended.  This early recording by Edwin Fischer was perhaps truer to that.  Also by Bach we heard an aria from St Matthew Passion where the alto and violin weave through the melody.

For Wagner lovers – and even for non-Wagner lovers – we heard the well known prelude to the Master Singers.   A lighter touch was provided by Dudley Moore playing And the Same to You – a parody of Beethoven, performed at Beyond the Fringe.

Other pieces included:

  • Gustav Mahler’s Ruckertleider No 5 sung by Janet Baker
  • Beethoven’s Bagatelles (selection of)
  • Mozart’s Vedrai carino from Don Giovanni
  • Gerald Finzi’s In Terra Pax
  • an exceprt from Verdi’s Aida
  • the wonderful Fantasy in F Minor by Schubert
  • one of the songs from Four Last Songs by Strauss
  • and we finished with part of The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

So a fine end to the first half of the season and we wish all our readers a happy Christmas.

The new season starts off on February 2 with a fascinating presentation by Frida Backman of the Backman Trio who will be taking us through the process of making a CD from rehearsal to the finished thing.  We look forward to seeing you then.  Details of where we are on the home page.  Please check back here nearer the time for any change to the arrangements.

Last meeting of the season

The Society’s current season ended in fine style with a double bill: one part on Puccini’s Tosca and the other on the English composer, Gerald Finzi. Tosca is of course a very well known opera but what is less well appreciated is how broadly similar most productions are. Vic Riches explained that this was because Puccini left detailed instructions on how it should be performed and most productions followed them. It received its premier in January 1900 at a time of unrest in Italy and the violent nature of the plot – with torture and a firing squad graphically depicted – meant a troubled start. However, it is now a much loved part of the operatic repertoire.

Gerald Finzi
Gerald Finzi
The English composer, Gerald Finzi, is by contrast less well known and yet deserves to be heard more. He is perhaps best known for his songs and we heard ‘In years defaced’ and ‘Let us garlands bring’ the latter performed by Bryn Terfel. The second movement from his Cello Concerto opus 40, performed by Raphael Wallfisch under the baton of Vernon Handley, was played together with Romance for String Orchestra opus 11. Both are fine works and worth listening to if there is an opportunity.

Ed Tinline, joint chair of the Society, said it had been a successful year ‘fulfilling the Society’s purpose of bringing generally lesser known pieces and composers to a wider public’. Members heard music by Bartok, a variety of Scandinavian composers and the French composer Dutilleux as well as more well known names such as Wagner, Ravel and Schumann. Numbers attending had increased slightly on previous years following the change to Monday evenings which is encouraging he added.