Tag: Wiltshire

Meeting on 17th April

Note change to programme this coming Monday

It was good to read Peter Curbishley’s report on Robin’s presentation in last week’s Salisbury Journal. 

Our next meeting will be on Monday 17th April as scheduled, but due to unforeseen circumstances we have had to change the ‘running order’ of our coming evenings. Alan Forshaw has very kindly agreed to bring forward his presentation, so our programme now is: 

On Monday 17th April,  Alan Forshaw will present “Like father like son . . .”  and describe how ‘keeping it in the family’ can work a treat.

This will be followed on Monday 22nd May when our guest presenter, Simon Coombs, will now present “Czech music from Smetana to Martinů” .

And then our final session of 2022-23 will be on Monday 5th June when Peter Horwood will present his ‘American Adventure’.

We hope you can join us for all or most of the remaining sessions for 2022-23.

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Next meeting

The next meeting is tonight, 13 March 2023, and is a presentation about making recordings during Lockdown. It will be by concert pianist Christopher Guild and this is an extract from his biography:

Born in Scotland in 1986, Christopher Guild studied piano and violin locally before entering St Mary’s Music School, Edinburgh aged 13. He took top honours in the Moray Piano Competition 2001 – he remains the youngest winner to this day.  Christopher entered the Royal College of Music in 2005 as a Foundation Scholar and studied for six years with Andrew Ball, gaining a First Class BMus (Hons), and the MMus and Artist Diploma with Distinction.  He went on to be the Richard Carne Junior Fellowship in Performance at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance 2012-13.  

Christopher teaches at Godolphin School. We look forward to seeing you at 7:30pm

New season about to start!

NOTE: please note that the first meeting does not take place tomorrow, 12th September as printed in Music in Salisbury. We had to change our programme at the last minute due to unforeseen circumstances. The first meeting is on 26th. We are sorry for this sudden change.

The new season gets underway soon and the programme is printed and will soon be in various locations around town. A pdf version is below. It is a varied and extremely interesting programme so we look forward to seeing you again on Monday 26th September for a presentation of music from Ukraine. We look forward to seeing you again or welcoming new members.

Next meeting

Our last meeting before Christmas – tonight!

The next meeting, the last before Christmas, will be on Monday 6 December at 7.30 when Ruth Barlow will present Classical Music in Animations and invite us to join her in an end of term scamper through some cartoons with great classical music, including considering whether Fantasia was Mickey Mouse’s finest hour and listening to Tom and Jerry playing Liszt.

As before, we ask all attending to follow the Covid safety measures we have in place including signing in and sanitising procedures on arrival, well spaced seating, wearing a mask, minimising moving around and maintaining social distancing.  From recent government announcements, it would seem that provided we follow our current practice this will fit within the latest Covid guidelines, so we plan to go ahead with the meeting on Monday, but if anyone feels uncomfortable and decides not to attend we shall understand.

After Monday we have a break until 31st January 2022 when we shall be delighted to welcome John Challenger to explore the highs and lows, the delights and difficulties of commercial recording on one of the greatest cathedral organs in the country: Salisbury’s own Father Willis Organ

We hope you will be able to come and feel comfortable on Monday 6th December

November meeting

Details of the meeting to be held on Monday 8 November 2021

The next meeting will be on Monday 8th November when Alan Forshaw will present Listening to Beethoven in a different light.

We shall have an interval when we will offer tea or coffee, but you’re welcome to bring your own drink.  As before, we ask all attending to follow the Covid safety measures we have in place including signing in and sanitising procedures on arrival, well spaced seating, wearing a mask, minimising moving around and maintaining social distancing. 

On 22nd November we shall have a Members’ Evening. If you have a piece on CD of around 10 minutes that you would like to bring and have played at the meeting, please would you let us have details, if possible this Monday so we can draw up a play list.

We look forward to seeing you there.

George Lloyd

George Lloyd was born in 1913 in St Ives (Cornwall) and had a traumatic life.  Both his parents were keen musicians and encouraged his talent from an early age.  Illness meant he was taught at home then left to continue his studies in London.

He wrote his first symphony at 19 which was premiered in Penzance.  We heard the Introduction,  Theme and Five Variations and it was music which showed great accomplishment.  Two other symphonies followed as well as two operas; The Serf and Lernin.  The latter was also first performed in Penzance before being transferred to London where it had an unusually long run.  Alan Forshaw, the presenter, played the Duet from the opera and it was an outstanding piece of music.

A crucial event in his life was joining the Marines as a bandsman and took part in the awful North Cape convoys to supply the Red Army in WWII.  A most terrible event took place in many of his fellow marines were drowned in fuel oil.  This affected his mental wellbeing and prolonged hospitalisation with what was still being called shellshock, now called PTSD.

It was physically difficult for him to write music because of the shaking but with devoted care from his wife he was able to start again.  A movement from a subsequent symphony demonstrated a change in style.

He wrote music for brass bands and one such was HMS Trinidad March, the ship he had served on.  He had almost no success with commissions from the BBC with his scores returned with no comment.  A member of the audience suggested this might have been the influence of William Glock and the pressure to use the 12 tone scale which Lloyd has little time for.

He quit the musical life and he and his wife opened a market garden in Dorset.  He began to be appreciated in later life and had some of his work performed at the Proms and he did well in America.  Albany Records recorded several of his works.  We heard a movement from the 4th Piano Concerto and a movement from the 6th Symphony.  Other pieces included extracts from the Requiem, and the Black Dyke Mills Band playing a memoriam following the IRA atrocity in the Royal parks.

For those of us who knew little of this composer’s work it was a revelation.  He had a sure touch when it came to orchestration.  I felt his style would have suited film music where he may have done well.  We were grateful to Alan for his work in preparing the evening.

Peter Curbishley

Please note we now have a page on Facebook – Salisbury recorded music society.

Next meeting on 28 October  

2019/20 programme

The new season’s programme is now available

We are pleased to attach the new programme for 2019 – 20.  It is an exciting programme with a lot to interest people who like classical music.  Several presenters have chosen an English theme this year – five in all – as well as other classics such as Handel and Berlioz.  There are two members’ evenings which are open to non members.  You can download the programme from here although there will be hard copies available in the Tourist Office; Oxfam’s Music Room and the Library.

Hard copies of the programme is available in the Tourism Information Centre in Fish Row, Oxfam Music Room in Catherine St; and in Salisbury and Amesbury Libraries.

Entrance for non members is £3.

Programme 2019 – 20 (pdf)

Members’ evening

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.

Peter Curbishley

Next meeting on May 13th

Next meeting: Handel

The next and last meeting of the current programme of the Society is a presentation by Tim Rowe of the music of Handel.  Starting at 7:30 on May 13th as usual it is entitled intriguingly: Pebbles to Polished Diamonds.  

This has been an excellent programme this year and Tim’s evening promises to be a good coda.

Easy parking to the rear.