November 23rd 2021 “ Open forum / BYO “
Members enjoyed a wide selection of music including “ Christmas” items like “ Unto us a Child is born “ from Handel’s “Messiah” and part of JS Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio” . There were some lesser known items – Anton Rubinstein’s Piano Concerto No 4 , Gerald Finzi’s “ Romance for String Orchestra” and Gounod’s “ Judex” from his “Mars et Vita” . Mozart was represented by the Rondo from his “Oboe Concerto in C” and Bruch by his well-known and much loved “Violin concerto No 1 “.
We were also asked to guess the language of a song which proved to come from an album by an Australian aborigine singer – certainly a first for our group. As a reminder that we no longer have a Jazz appreciation group running ,we were treated to a Jazz arrangement of a familiar piece which turned out to have been the introductory music to TV’s “ Cinema” with Barry Norman .
We ended with a “guess the theme” in a set of variations – Dohnanyi’s “Variations on a Nursery Song” – Twinkle, Twinkle , little star” . Everyone seemed to go home smiling so a most enjoyable afternoon.
Playlist
Handel : “ Unto us a Child is born” from “ Messiah Sung by The Scholars Baroque Ensemble with soloists
Max Bruch : Violin Concerto No 1 – 1st movement Played by Pinchas Zuckerman with the London Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta
JS Bach : Christmas Oratorio Sung by Coro della Radio Svizzera Logano and soloists plus I Barochisti conducted by Diego Fasolis
Gounod: “ Judex” from “ Mars et Vita Played by The RLPO with Libor Pesek
Anton Rubinstein: Piano Concerto No 4 in D minor – 1st movement Played by Natasha Paremski with the Moscow Philharmonic c. Dmitry Yablonsky
Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunapinga : “ Wyathal” from his album “ Gurrumul”
Gerald Finzi : Romance for String Orchestra Academy of St. Martin in the Fields c. Sir Neville Marriner
Richard Carroll Lamb: “ I wish I knew how it would feel to be free” Played by Jeff Goldblum (p) with The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra
Erno Dohnanyi : “Variations on a Nursery Song – Introduction , theme and first 2 variations Played by Erno Dohnanyi (p) with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra c, Sir Adrian Boult
October 26th 2021 “ Tchaikovsky and friends “
This was an informative and interesting presentation by Vaughan Wall about the composer and some of the people who provided financial or emotional support during his career . It was illustrated by some entertaining anecdotes and excerpts of some of his lesser known works (see playlist below).
Playlist
1) Suite No 4 “ Mozaritana Played by The New Philharmonia Orchestra c . Antal Dorati
2) Symphony No 2 “ Little Russian “ -second movement Played by the Berlin Philharmonic c. Herbert von Karajan
3) The Snow Maiden “ Dance and Chorus of the Birds Played by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra c, Igor Golovshian
4) “Souvenir d’un lieu cher” – Played by Ilya Kaler (violin) with the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra c. Dmitry Yablonsky
5) Swan Lake – The Waltz from Act Played by the London Symphony Orchestra c. Andre Previn
6) Piano Concerto No 2 – first movement = Played by Peter Donohue (piano) with The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra c. Rudolf Barshai
7) Symphony No 4 – first movement Played by the Berlin Philharmonic c. Herbert von Karajan
8) Festival Coronation March Played by the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra c, Guennadi Rojdestvenski
Restart meeting 28th September 2021 : ” Humour in Music ”
To celebrate our restart of the group , David Sunderland presented a selection of examples of humour in music , humourous songs, humour from hearing the unexpected and musical parodies – familiar music but in the style of another composer .
As promised , every one left with a smile !
Playlist:
Track 1 Ibert – Divertissement – Parade and finale Played by the Bournmouth Symphony Orchestra c, William T, Stromberg
Track 2 “On the trail” from the Grand Canyon Suite by Ferde Played by the Bournmouth Symphony Orchestra c Andrew Litton
Track 3 Gilbert and Sullivans “ the Mikado “ – My object all sublimSung byDonald Maxwell as the Mikado at the 2007 Buxton Gilbert and Sullivan Festival
Track 4 The Hippopotamus song by Flanders and Swan Sung by the operatic bass Ian Wallace
Track 5 E.J Moeran and Peter Warlock setting of ” MaltWorms” Sung by Nielsen Taylor
Track 6 “The Mermaid” Trad arr Whitworth sung by the Kings Singers
Track 7 Mussorgsky’s setting of “Mephistopheles song of the flea “ from Goethe’s ” Faust Sung by the British bass Sir John Tomlinson
Track 8 Haydn String Quartet Op 33 No 2 “ The Joke” – Adagio “
Track 9 – Sibelius Symphony No 5 -end
Track 10 Chopin – Mazurka No 47 Opus 68 no 2 played by Vladimir Ashkenazy
Track 11 Chopin – Mazurka No 47 Opus 68 no 2 arr for 4 Tubas by Daniel Abrams Composed for the 1956 Hoffnung Music Festival .
Track 12 Andante from Haydn’s Symphony – known as the” Surprise” Symphony – excerpt
Track 13 Donald Swan’s version of Haydn’s “Surprise” Symphony Played by the Hoffnung Symphony Orchestra at the1956 Hoffnung Music Festival
Track 14 : Beethoven Parody composed by Dudley Moore Played by the concert pianist Piers Lane
Track 15: Eric Fenby – “ Rossini on Ilkla Moor” Royal Ballet Sinfonia c Gavin Sutherland