“Has he not quite lapsed into a kind of madness?” was one critic’s reaction upon hearing Beethoven’s 7th Symphony. “A veritable quodlibet of tragic, comic, serious and trivial ideas, rambling on and on pointlessly without the least connection, repeating themselves to the point of weariness”. Others joined in the criticism: Richard Wagner mocked it by having Franz Liszt play part of it on the piano while he danced to the music; Sir Thomas Beecham was quoted as asking “What can you do with it? It’s like a lot of yaks jumping about”. Beethoven is often portrayed as the archetypal mad genius, tormented into brilliance by instability and suffering. But was he truly insane, or has Romantic mythology obscured the real story of resilience and discipline? After all, it is well and truly documented how there has never been any great genius without a spice of madness. Aristotle noted: "No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness."  Perhaps on the favourable side – while the 7th symphony is wild, intense, at times even a bit menacing, overall it is just a whirlwind of shimmering, beautiful genius.

Nothing else nearly as disputed or controversial in the remainder of our presentations this month, although Bernstein’s musical Candide underwent revisions spanning four decades before reaching universal acceptance, Bizet’s opera Carmen had to endure objections from the musicians, the actors and the more conservative elements of the theatre-going public before reaching today’s wide and general acceptance, and Ginastera’s “Estancia” nearly didn’t make the stage at all when the ballet company which commissioned the work collapsed. Music as varied as you can imagine made up the rest – from Mendelssohn to Vaughan-Wiliams, Widor, Ligeti and Poulenc. Lots to listen to and read about if you look up this page when we've added the links - watch this space! 

The month of October sees the annual celebration of the Seniors Festival. An open invitation is extended to non-members as well as other U3A members to sample one or both of our programmes – Fridays 9th and 23rd October at 10am in U3A’s Room 1 at the Senior Citizens Centre. A quick advice to me of your intention to take up the opportunity would be a help towards the printing of programme material and arrangement of seating.

Bill Squire
0429 626 334  [email protected]

It has been said that “when you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world”.

​Composing music seemed to come naturally to Beethoven – some 700 or more works are credited to him. Yet he was nearly 30 years of age before he composed his first symphony. It is thought one reason for this was a reluctance or a nervousness that he would be compared with his teacher (Haydn) who was the master of symphonic writing (104 symphonies). When his 1st symphony finally did appear it starts off in the wrong key. The tonic key is C major but it starts in F major,  touches on C major, the jumps to G major  before settling in the C major key.– what one musicologist  called "a comedy of manners", and another “a musical joke”.  A similar “joke” starts the final movement where partial scales are played slowly before the full C-major scale marks the real start of the movement. In between, the other two movements are written at different tempos than those marked.

No such quirks with his Piano Concerto No.5 composed  a few short years later - the “emperor of concertos” it was described as at the time; although its bold opening was shocking for its time, breaking tradition.

A little later again, composers in the eastern bloc countries began composing music that reflected the sights and sounds of their homelands. George Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsody is a sparkling orchestral medley of traditional Romanian folksongs he had heard and played as a child; while Bedrich Smetana composed a whole six movement suite which he dubbed simply “My Country”, giving one whole movement over to describing the course of the river Vltava (or Moldau). At the same time Hector Berlioz was portraying Shakespeare through music and Ottorino Respighi was being captivated by the sight and sounds of Rome.

A virtual smorgasbord of music from across the European countryside occupied our attention this month. You can read more about it and listen to the recordings played by accessing the relevant link below.
Bill Squire.

Session Notes
Enescu - Romanian Rhapsody No.1
Beethoven - Emperor Concerto
Beethoven- Emperor Concerto (Zimmerman/Bernstein)
Beethoven - Symphony No.1

Session Notes 28th August
Berlioz - Overture to Beatrice and Benedict
Smetana - Vltava
Respighi - Pines of Rome
Vivaldi Mandolin Concerto
Mozart - Sonata for Two Pianos


Bill Squire

Musicians look down on it, critics always complain about it, conductors hate conducting it, orchestral musicians hate playing it, even at its premiere the audience wasn't especially reactive to the work.  Perhaps that's because once again Beethoven had dared to do something revolutionary: he had invented a new musical form. It was the first time in music history that a solo piano trio was performed with an orchestra. Happily, there have been some commentators who think all of this criticism of this much maligned piece is totally unfair. And happier still, it continues to be performed fairly regularly. The work in question is Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, which was the major focus of the first session this month.
 
In its early stages Sibelius’ 2nd symphony wasn’t a symphony. It was a patchwork of musical jottings. Early in 1901, Sibelius is relaxing, enjoying a holiday in Italy. Inspired by his surroundings, Sibelius fantasises about the story of legendary womaniser Don Juan being visited by Death and jots down the musical notes. A short time later, after coming face to face with some of Christianity’s most iconic images in Florence, he drafted another theme above which he wrote the word “Christus.” While we’ll never know if it was his intention, these contrasting musical symbols of death and resurrection form the pillars of this beloved work. At the same time the political situation in Finland was becoming increasingly tense. By the time of the premiere in March 1902, it was inevitable that Sibelius’s new work would be received against the background of the nationalist struggle for independence against Tsarist Russia. It was an overwhelming success. While Sibelius denied any political motive, the second symphony has become connected with  Finland’s fight for independence and the birth of an independent nation.

Complementing these two works were shorter works by Beethoven, Mozart and Bruch.

For your reading and listening enjoyment further details and videos of the recordings can be accessed by clicking on the relevant link below.

Bill Squire.

“Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” ― J.K. Rowling.
​
Hector Berlioz’ opera Benvenuto Cellini lasted three performances before (in his words) it was “hissed with admirable energy and unanimity” and closed down. Instead of completely abandoning the materials from the opera, Berlioz revived portions and concentrated them into an overture – Roman Carnaval – that is today one of his most popular works.

Mozart towards the end of his very young life was depressed not only with his having lost an infant daughter, but also with financial woes and the failing success of his career. He was not performing publicly, his popularity was waning, and that income stream dried up. Out of this doom and gloom and in the space of six weeks came three symphonies including No. 40 – one of only two he composed in a minor key.

Stories are numerous regarding the fiasco at the premiere of Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy. Nearly all of the music - some of it said to be the most challenging ever devised by the mind of man - was sight-read at the concert. Several faulty performances are said to have tried the patience of patrons the utmost, while after the concert, a deputation of orchestral musicians informed Beethoven that they would never play for him again. Such was the backdrop to the three works of our one and only June session. More detail and links to performances:

Session Notes
Berlioz - Roman Carnival Overture
Mozart - Symphony No.40
Beethoven - Choral Fantasy

Bill Squire

"I would so much like young people to have a sense of the gift that they are. Not many of them feel like that” (John Denver). Whether or not he had a sense of being a gift to the world of music, Felix Mendelssohn was one of the most remarkable child prodigies of all time.  At the precocious age of fourteen he wrote the Violin Sonata in F minor, Op 4, and two early concertos for his music teacher, while a year later scribbled out his Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in A flat major, intending it for he and his sister Fanny to play in a private concert. Filled with stylish finger-work, the concerto clearly served to display the musical gifts of the two siblings. Since Mendelssohn came to regard it as mere juvenilia, it never achieved publication in his lifetime and remained forgotten until a version, which had been revised by the composer himself, surfaced in a Berlin library in1961.
​
Although born some forty years later Antonin Dvorak, like Mendelssohn, came to know music at an early age, becoming an accomplished violinist as a youngster, having studied harmony, piano, and organ since twelve years of age. Also in common with each other Mendelssohn and Dvorak travelled extensively, including to the United Kingdom. In 1884 Dvorak made the first of ten visits to England, where the success of his works, not only gave him enormous pride, but an outcome of one of his London concerts was to be made an honorary member of the city’s Philharmonic Society and offered a commission for a new symphony which became his Symphony No.7.

Mozart,  too, began his musical career in the “prodigy” class, having scribbled out a concerto at the age of five; although he had arrived at a more mature age by the time of writing his four concertos for horn and orchestra – he was of the “ripe old age of twenty-seven” when he composed the second of them.

Aaron Copland was taught to play the piano by an older sister and by the time he was 15 he had decided to become a composer. At the age of twenty-one 1921 Copland attended the newly founded school for Americans at Fontainebleau, where he came under the influence of Nadia Boulanger, a brilliant teacher who shaped the outlook of an entire generation of American musicians. But it wasn’t until nearly twenty years later when production of ballet scores began to spread Copland’s fame throughout the world. Among these was his “Appalachian Spring” (nothing to do with Spring in the Appalachian Mountains) – a ballet he was commissioned to write for a ballet dancer and choreographer, Martha Graham. Originally titled “A Ballet for Martha”, the new title was given quite some time later.

More detail and links to the recordings are listed below:

For more detail and to view the video recordings click on the links below:
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Session Notes 8th May
Glinka - Ruslan and Lyudmila Overture
Dvorak - Symphony No.7
Mozart - Horn Concerto No.2
Mendelssohn - Sonata in F minor
Session Notes 22nd May
Mozart - Overture to Cosi Fan Tutti
Khachaturian - Sabre dance
Copland - Appalachian Spring
Mendelssohn and Bruch - Concertos for Two Pianos: - note - you may wish to fast forward the presenter's introductions to both concertos.

​Bill Squire

‘Strange harmony of contrasts, thus deliciously blending ………’.  ‘Art, too, with its many mysteries, blends all together ……..’.

So sang the painter Cavaradossi in Act 1 of the opera Tosca, as he worked on a portrait of the Madonna for the Church in which he was painting. His words could well be used to describe our Music Appreciation sessions where one aim is to provide compositions from a variety of musical periods whilst blending them into a single programme of harmonious enjoyment.

This was especially the case in the presentation of our April Programmes. The elegance and expressiveness of Baroque music encapsulated in Guiseppe Sammartini’s Concerto in F for Recorder, contrasted with the “iron man” nature of Shostakovich’s 1st Violin Concerto (composed 1947) which calls on everything in the violinists’ technical arsenal, as well as vast physical and emotional stamina; and Friedrich Gulda’s Cello Concerto – a five movement work which transported us through blues-rock, Austrian folk dance, free improvisation, a courtly minuet, and a finale of bawdy polka. 

Then there was Gustav Mahler’s 1st Symphony -composed in 1888 - in which Mahler portrays how life is basically good, but comes with a mixture of sorrow and irony, the grotesque and the sublime, tragedy and humour. For Mahler life was often a challenge in overcoming the disappointments and tragedies that are thrown at you.

​The strange harmony of contrast was the youthfulness and lightness of Mozart’s 3rd Violin concerto which he composed in 1775 at only nineteen years of age. Aristocratic, suave, witty, wonderfully melodious, this and Mozart’s other four concertos for violin are dazzling gems that that can be truly mastered only by the very best violinists. Mozart intentionally composed them this way to highlight the technical skills of the soloist.

More detail can be found by accessing the links below to the session notes and videos of the recordings played.

Session Notes 10th April
Sammartini - Recorder Concerto in F
Shostakovich - Violin Concerto No.1
Gulda - Cello Concerto

Session Notes 24th April
Mahler Symphony No.1

and
Mozart - Violin Concerto No.3


​Bill Squire

“Do not take up music unless you would rather die than not do so” (Nadia Boulanger). Due to self-perceived male dominance in the music world few works by women composers are part of standard classical music repertoire, yet women have been composing music since at least the ninth century. Despite many attempts to minimise or erase their contributions in music, women continued to forge ahead and innovate across all the genres.

​To acknowledge this, the first of our March programmes explored the contribution of five women composers across several centuries – Isabella Leonarda and Elizabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre in the17th century, Josefine Weinlich in the 19th and Florence Price and Doreen Carwithin in the 20th  - each with a different nationality, background and type of composition - and most with a story to tell reflecting the difficulties women composers faced in the age in which they lived.

“True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time.” (George Gershwin). Commissioned, after the success of his “Rhapsody in Blue”, Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, with its wink to Broadway and rhythm of the Charleston “represents the young enthusiastic spirit of American life,” said the composer. One critic reviewing the work claimed that Gershwin, “alone of all those writing the music of today . . . expresses us”. Such was the centrepiece of our 2nd March session. Supporting works by Wagner, Vivaldi and Saint-Saens combined for an international flavour (American, German, Venetian and French) and a varied instrumental approach to the programme.

Details and links to all the recordings can be accessed by clicking on the relevant link below:

Session Notes 13th March
Florence Price - Concert Overture No.2
Doreen Carwithin - Concerto for Piano and Strings
Josefine Weinlich - Feldblumen Walzer
Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre - Suite in A
Isabella Leonarda - Sonata Duodecima

Session Notes 27th March
Wagner - Rienzi Overture
Vivaldi - Concerto for Flautino
Saint-Saens - Cello Concerto in A minor

To watch a video of the Gershwin Piano Concerto, copy & paste the following link into your search engine - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P26m_5In3yY&t=1 - or watch below: -

​Bill Squire

Contemporary American artist Eric Gibbons once observed: “Art is often born from inner struggle. Artists are plagued by impulses they must express”. Although Gibbons was born more than 200 years after Beethoven and Tchaikovsky the accuracy of his comment is reflective of the differing struggles Beethoven and Tchaikovsky experienced.

Beethoven’s 5th Symphony was born out his struggles with encroaching deafness and the political climate of the day dominated by Napoleon who Beethoven once admired but came to despise. The four-note motif which permeates the symphony, commonly referred to as the “fate” motif, is said to reflect Beethoven’s determination to overcome the despair he was experiencing.

Tchaikovsky’s 1st piano concerto was composed with an aim to impress pianist Nikolai Rubenstein and also with the hope that Rubenstein would premiere the work and, naturally, give it some desired standing in the music world of the day. Rubenstein, however, was more than dismissive of the concerto, calling it “worthless” and “unplayable”. Rubenstein conceded that if Tchaikovsky would permit him to modify it to suit his (Rubenstein’s ) requirements he would be happy to play it. Tchaikovsky replied “I shall not alter a single note”,  and promptly gave the honour of premiering it to someone else, whose performance was a stunning success.

Only later did Rubenstein do an “about face” on the concerto and repair the relationship with Tchaikovsky. The concerto went on, of course, to become one of the most popular works in the piano repertoire.

These were the two compositions that dominated our February sessions. Less dramatic by circumstance, but no less enjoyable to the ear, were works by Johann and Joseph Strauss and Mozart. 

More detail and videos of the works played are contained in the links below.
Session Notes 13th February
J Straus II - Overture to Indigo and the Forty Thieves
Beethoven - Symphony No.5
Mozart - Horn Quintet in E Flat major
J Strauss (I & II) - Blue Danube & Radetzky March

Session Notes 27th February
J Strauss II - Overture to Die Fledermaus
Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No.1
Mozart - Sinfonia Concertante K364
​
Bill Squire

​“Most people don’t care who’s on charge so long as someone is”, wrote author Tanya Huff in her book of heroic fantasy stories. That could not be said about George 1st – King of England in the early 18th century. German-speaking, uncharismatic and not especially intelligent, George I was unpopular, and opposition politicians flocked to support his eldest son, the future George II. His response was to stage a grand royal event on a barge on the River Thames as a publicity-boosting spectacle, designed to impress Londoners and steal the spotlight from the prince, as well as to convey a message to him as to who is in charge. For that event the king commissioned Handel to compose music for the occasion, - giving us what we know today as “The Water Music”.

Not so forthcoming was Johannes Brahms. For some years, uncertain in his work and his life and his income, Brahms retreated into a kind of musical wilderness. But out of this wilderness experience came his “Serenade No. 2 for Orchestra”. Tuneful and largely cheerful, the work was well received publicly which did much to restore his self-confidence, paving the way for the greater things which were to come from his hand.

Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was a great admirer of the composer Respighi’s music, prompting some to call into the question Respighi’s own political affiliations and sympathies. Respighi, however, was a man deeply attuned to the immense richness of his nation’s historical and artistic heritage. That's one reason why Respighi, a proud Bolognese, was attracted to the Italian capital as a source of cultural inspiration. He moved to Rome in in his mid-thirties to teach composition at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia and from this, among other similar compositions, came his “Fountains of Rome” – describing aesthetic impression made on him, the ‘sentiments and visions’ inspired, as he put it, by four exquisitely sculpted Roman fountains, ‘contemplated at the hour in which their character is most in harmony with the surrounding landscape, or their beauty appears most impressive to the observer’.

The final session for the year was given over to the anticipation of the coming Christmas season. A smorgasbord of music for the season - works by Corelli, Berlioz, Charpentier, Praetorious, and a few in lighter vein, rounded off an enjoyable musical year. The details (notes and recordings) are posted below.

Many thanks to all who have showed appreciation and support in the presentation of programmes throughout the year. 

​I look forward to the company of any and all who wish to be part of our musical adventures in 2026.

​
Bill Squire.

Session Notes 14th November
Handel Water Music - Suite No.2
Brahms - Serenade NO. 2]
Respighi - Fountains of Rome
Bach - Keyboard Concerto No.2

Session Notes 28th November
Hess - Christmas Overture
Corelli - A Christmas Concerto
Berlioz - Herod's Aria
Berlioz - Shepherds' Farewell
Berlioz - Trio for Harp and Flutes
Charpentier- Noels sur les Instruments
Praetorious - In Dulce Jubilo
Poston - Jesus Christ the Apple Tree
Vaughan Williams (Collection) - The Gloucester Wassail
Figgy Pudding Song

“A  beautiful little Sinfonietta with fanfares” was how Leoš Janáček in a letter to female companion described a composition inspired by a military band they had listened to in a park in Písek, in southern Bohemia. Yet there was nothing “little” about it. Apart from it being the longest purely orchestral work Janáček composed (about 25 minutes’ worth), his Sinfonietta is scored for just about the largest brass section you’ll ever see in any orchestral work including nine trumpets in C, two bass trumpets, and two tenor tubas all underpinned by a pounding two-measure phrase in the timpani. 

The music of fellow countryman Antonin Dvořák in contrast is often filled with a quiet, wistful nostalgia, and an embrace of nature. We hear all of this in the Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major, a work of profound depth and monumental scale which Dvořák composed in 1887 following his unsuccessful and discarded earlier piano quintet. Contrasts notwithstanding, the compositions of Dvořák and Janáček were deeply inspired by the folk songs and speech patterns of their Bohemian homeland known today as Czechoslovakia.  Such was the first of our two October programmes.

“Tragic”  was Schubert’s name for his 4th symphony, but we don’t know why. We do know that only two of his symphonies were written in minor keys (the other was the “Unfinished Symphony”). The nickname may have more to do with youthful drama then actual tragedy - Schubert was only 19 years old at the time of its composition, by which time this young genius had already written four symphonies and over a hundred musical works in all. Nothing tragic about Robert Schumann’s Three Romances Opus 94. Written on December 7, 11, and 12th 1849, the pieces - according to Schumann himself - were given to his wife Clara, whom he once described as his own "right hand", as a Christmas present. How romantic is that?

Bookending these two works in the second October session was Paul Schoenfeld’s Café Music and Mozart’s Quartet for Oboe and Strings.   In 1985 Schoenfeld was asked to fill in for the pianist at a restaurant which employs a house trio that plays entertaining dinner music in a wide variety of styles. “My intention, Schoenfeld said, “was to write a kind of high-class dinner music — music which could be played at a restaurant but might also (just barely) find its way into a concert hall”. Centuries earlier Mozart was invited to Munich to visit Elector Karl Theodor, who had commissioned the opera Idomeneo for a carnival celebration. While in Munich, Mozart renewed an acquaintance with Friedrich Ramm, a virtuoso oboist in the Munich orchestra and the most celebrated oboist of the day. It was for Ramm that Mozart composed the quartet. The year was 1781, the pivotal year of Mozart’s life. This was the year when he cut his ties with his family and hometown of Salzburg and struck out on his own as a freelance musician in Vienna. Reflecting his growing adulthood, the quartet was his first really mature piece of chamber music.

All this and more, including recordings, can be viewed by clicking on the links below.

Bill Squire.

Session Notes 10th October
Wagner - Flying Dutchman Overture
Dvorak - Piano Quintet No.2
Janacek - Sinfonietta
Sibelius - Finlandia
 
Session Notes 24th October
Schoenfeld -Cafe Music
Schubert - Symphony No.4
Schumann - Three Romances Opus 94
Mozart - Oboe Quartet
​

Beethoven once wrote to his publisher: “What is difficult, is also beautiful, good, great, and so forth. Hence everyone will realise that this is the most lavish praise that can be bestowed, since what is difficult makes one sweat”. If this credo manifests itself most powerfully in any one of Beethoven’s works, it might be the piano Sonata Op. 106, nicknamed, “Hammerklavier.”  It is the longest Sonata Beethoven ever wrote, which essentially means that it was the longest sonata anyone had written up to that point. It is certainly his most ambitious Sonata to that time, and his most difficult.

Mozart likewise, once freed in later years from the strict demands of the court of the Archbishop of Salzburg, embarked on his most ambitious setting of the Catholic Mass (he had already composed some 15 settings of the Mass up to that time). This was to be a Grand Mass on the scale of JS Bach’s Missa Solemnis, and a wedding present for his new bride Constanze, who herself would sing the soprano role. Alas, for reasons that we will probably never know, it was never to be finished. Discarded before being reworked by Mozart into a cantata, it was discovered and eventually published in its incomplete form some years after Mozart’s death, and even then is almost an hour in length. Needless to say, these two works occupied a complete session for us.

Taking a lighter and less demanding approach concentration-wise and staying with Beethoven and Mozart, our second session took in the forays of both into the world of trios and sonatas. Mozart was said to have composed the “Keggelstatt” Sonata in a bowling alley, hence its nick-name, and Beethoven’s  “Gassenhauer” Trio was so named after a song heard on the streets of Vienna. Then there was a Beethoven take on a Mozart tune – Beethoven “cashing-in” in the surge of popularity for Mozart’s work following his death. All of this can be read about and listened to by clicking on the links below


Bill Squire

Session Notes 12th September
Mozart - Great Mass in C minor
Beethoven - "Hammerkalvier" Sonata

Session Notes 26th September
Mozart - Overture to The Magic Flute
Mozart - Ein Madchen oder Weibchen
Beethoven - 12 Variations on Ein Madchen oder Weibchen
Mozart - Trio in E Flat major K498
Beethoven Sonata in F for Horn and Piano Op. 17
Beethoven - Trio in B Flat major Op 11

“If you write with someone looking over your shoulder you will never write”. Long before African-American poet Nikki Giovanni spoke those words, both Brahms and Tchaikovsky knew the full weight of their meaning. Brahms, touted in his early years as a composer that he would be the successor to Beethoven, felt for some time he was living in Beethoven’s shadow. Consequently, he often fought with expectations and fell into bouts of what you might call “obstructive perfectionism”. If he was to be seen as Beethoven’s successor, he then wanted to make sure his work would be a success. It’s why he took him 21 years - until mid-life - to compose a symphony. Happily, once that “monkey was off his back’, as it were, and Beethoven had been dead for 50 years, his 2nd Symphony followed in a matter of months.

Tchaikovsky was homosexual – something not all approved of either in ‘society’ or realms of Russian officialdom. Either to counter or to hide his nature – or maybe both -  Tchaikovsky entered into marriage with a female pupil. Either way the marriage was a disaster and Tchaikovsky fled from it after a couple of months to Italy and Switzerland. Coming to terms with his homosexuality, he eventually settled down to compose and his Violin Concerto arose from his greater degree of self-acceptance. Brahms’ 2nd symphony and Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto each provided a foundation for our August programmes, where also we heard compositions by Haydn, Mozart and, of course, Beethoven. Links to the video recordings used and the notes for each session are listed below.
​
Bill Squire.

​Friday 8th August
​
Session Notes 

Beethoven Symphony No.4
Brahms - Symphony No.2: 

As a pianist Camille Saint-Saëns became a protege of Franz Liszt, who declared him “the world’s greatest organist”. Saint-Saens later claimed people celebrated Liszt as “the world’s greatest pianist” in part because that was easier than appreciating his innovations and importance as a composer. Saint-Saëns, however, seemed to have no illusions about his own gifts as a composer or as a musician. He began composing at the precocious age of three and at eleven debuted as a concert pianist, offering as an encore to play any Beethoven sonata the audience could name. The brilliant child grew into a virtuoso musician and composer who poured out elegant, perfectly-proportioned works as naturally, he said, as “an apple tree producing apples”. His 5th and final piano concerto, filled with strange and exotic sounds, he premiered as the soloist in a concert celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of his début.

Franz Schubert was an absolute master of melody, composing symphonies, concerts, quartets and more the 600 songs. For all this, his efforts to compose for the musical theatre were haphazard disasters. The collaborations with the libretti were poor and the performances were few. Fortunately, the “Rosamunde” Overture has survived. Even though it was originally written for a different play which didn’t survive,  it has become one of his most popular works.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart penned a staggering total of over 600 compositions throughout his short life, spanning various genres, including orchestral, chamber, piano, and vocal music. As a young 20 year-old in Paris Mozart wrote to his father that he was composing a concertante for a group of elite wind musicians. Although commissioned it never saw the light of performance for more than a hundred years, and doubt has circulated ever since as to whether it was really written by Mozart.  While there may be no solution to the problem of when or for whom it was written, or even whether it is truly by Mozart, there is no mystery about its charm, its melodiousness, or its wide appeal:- a firm reminder that while stories behind musical compositions abound, they are never as captivating as the music itself. You can read some of the stories and listen to the music presented in our July sessions via the links listed below:

11th July

Session Notes (pdf)

Mendelssohn - Overture for Harmoniemusik

Mozart - Sinfonia Concertante for Winds:

Bill Squire

When Erik Korngold was serving in the first world war as music director for his regiment, the General once remarked: “Isn't it a little fast, Korngold? The men can't march to that”. To which Korngold replied: “Ah yes, well, you see Sir, this was composed for the retreat”. Being Austrian by birth , but of Jewish descent, Korngold, a few years later, was to organise his own “retreat”, escaping to the USA when the Nazi regime came to power. Although composing scores for opera was his forte, Korngold was persuaded by Warner Brothers to write incidental music for films. He regarded his films as ‘operas without singing’, and it is said of him: “he was the musical prodigy who brought the sound of Wagner and Puccini to Hollywood”. Sensing, however, that when a film left public view so did his music, Korngold returned to more serious composition. His violin concerto nearly didn’t make it past its premiere. Panned by critics as “more corn than gold” it rocketed to fame when no less a violinist than Jascha Heifitz took it on board, and the rest is history, as they say. Interestingly the opening melody is the flight/love theme from the film “Another Dawn” – which Korngold had envisaged as a concerto theme years before the film. This concerto was the foundation on which the second of our sessions for June was based: a Cuban Overture by George Gershwin, a Spanish dance by Maurice Ravel, and the Symphonic Suite from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story making up the programme.

The month’s earlier session was somewhat more traditional, although Brahms’ 3rd Symphony was not regarded by the composer as such, casting it as ‘contemporary’. Seen by some as ‘modernist’ and ‘romantic’, the symphony does break away from common convention ever so slightly - its successive movements, for example, each end quietly. Dvorak’s Carnival Overture, a Chopin Polonaise, and a piano concerto by Felix Mendelssohn scintillatingly played by Stephen Hough, served, however, to keep the programme in ‘traditional’ mode. Session notes and recordings played may be accessed by clicking on the relative links below.

Bill Squire.
​
 
13th June

Session Notes
Dvorak - Carnival Overture
Brahms - Symphony No.3
Chopin - Polonaise Opus 44
Mendelssohn - Piano Concerto No.1

27th June

Session Notes
Gershwin - Cuban Overture
Korngold - Violin Concerto
Ravel - Alborada del Gracioso
Bernstein - Symphonic  Dances from West Side Story

“If I fail, my death will be a glorious one, and if I succeed, I shall have done a great service to my country” (Anonymous).

In this vein, Scheherazade, the daughter of the Grand Vizier, persuaded her father to allow her to marry the Sultan who, convinced of the duplicity and infidelity of all women, had slain each of his wives after the first night of marriage. Through a clever practice of nightly storytelling Scheherazade won over the Sultan, who spared her life, causing peace to fall on the land and the realm to become safe from losing any more of its young women. Such is the background to Rimsky-Korsakov’s musical depiction of four of the 1001 tales with which Scheherazade beguiled her husband. Hansel and Gretel in Humperdinck’s opera found other ways of dealing with evil intentions, while Saint-Saëns mocked the fear of dying in his “Danse Macabre” depicting Death as a violinist appearing every Hallowe’en playing his fiddle as skeletons rise from their graves and dance until dawn.

Much less dramatic was the second of our May programmes. Debussy in his “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” conjures up the image of a Faun – a half-man and half-goat figure of Greek mythology – drifting off to sleep filled with colourful dreams and wakening to luxuriate in sensual memories. Sibelius’ Violin Concerto marks a turning point in the composer’s struggles with alcoholism and the financial needs to meet his responsibilities as a father of three. Illustrating the beauty of light amid so much wintery darkness of his native land, the character of the piece also has been compared to the character of Nordic people, offering a fascinating window into the inner world of Sibelius’ fellow countrymen. Many performers who have approached the task of bringing the concerto to life have defined it as a piece about both actual nature and human nature. In 1785 (age 29), Mozart dedicated a set of six new string quartets to his friend and mentor Josef Haydn, 34 years his senior. Upon attending the premiere of the new quartets with Leopold Mozart, his protégé’s father, Haydn told him: “before God and as an honest man I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name.” Some accolade, but something many of us have long since come to know!  We played just the 2nd of the set of six.

These and all our musical offerings for May may be listened to by clicking on the links below.
​
Bill Squire

Session Notes 9th May

Humperdinck - Prelude to Hansel and Gretel
Rimsky- Korsakov - Scheherazade
Schumann - Cello Concerto
Saint-Saens - Danse Macabre
 
Session Notes 23rd May
​
Debussy - Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Sibelius - Violin Concerto
Handel - Let the Bright Seraphim
Mozart -String Quartet No. 15

“May you, dear Spohr, wherever you find real art, and real artists, think with pleasure of me, your friend Beethoven”. In this personal testament to his sometime companion, Beethoven acknowledged a central figure in the development of European concert music. As the nineteenth century progressed Louis Spohr was engaged and feted by the major musical establishments for whom he conducted the steady output of orchestral, solo and chamber works. His reputation clearly rivalled that of Schubert, Schumann, Weber, Berlioz and others.

Time has treated Spohr more shabbily than several of his contemporaries - a contrast from an era (170 years past) when his musical ‘star’ was so much in the ascendant. The story is told of a distinguished visitor - manufacturer and music lover Herr von Tost - arriving one morning at Spohr’s doorstep with an extraordinary proposition: ‘He expressed the wish that everything Spohr should write in Vienna be reckoned as his property for a period of three years, and for which he would be financially rewarded. Spohr was to give him the original manuscripts and make no copies … “they may be performed as often as is possible but the scores must be borrowed from Tost for each occasion and performed only in his presence”.

One such work was “Nonet in F major”, a composition for nine instruments made up of four strings plus flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon. Tost requested the work to be written in such a way that each instrument would appear in its true character. It was the first composition ever for nine instruments.

Spohr’s “Nonet” was the major focus for our one and only session in April. The remainder of the session comprised a suite from the opera “Carmen” and a Mozart piano concerto with a stunning encore of Liszt’s “Tarantella”. The notes for each and the recordings may be accessed by clicking on the links below.

Bill Squire.


Session Notes

Bizet - Carmen Suite No.1

Louis Spohr - Grand Nonet in F major

Mozart - Piano Concerto No.19 & Liszt - Tarantella
​

There’s a quote by Anonymous: “Music isn’t what I do, it’s who I am”. Because, historically,  societal attitudes towards women designated them as inferior in the worlds of arts and sciences, women who composed music often found their compositions devalued accordingly. Consequently, much good music became “lost” through lack of exposure to the concert-going public. Thankfully, that is now beginning to be reversed.

​Our first programme for the month of March, in recognition of the contribution of female composers to the world of music, featured works by five women from varied backgrounds and circumstances: Maria Antoine Walpurgis who used her political clout to advance her music, Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia, her royal position and connections; while Louise Farrenc, Professor of Music at the Paris Conservatoire for 30 years in the 19th century not only produced quality compositions but managed to achieve equal pay for men and women at the Conservatoire. Marie Jaëll had the good fortune to study composition with the likes of César Franck and Camille Saint-Saëns and achieved recognition through sheer persistence and hard work, while Florence Price persevered against the odds of being both female and Afro-American in the USA in the first half of the 20th century.

Our adventures into these little-known worlds will be balanced by a return to “Old-favourites” – Beethoven, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky – for the second programme of the month. Who wrote the better music? Look up the notes and listen to the recordings posted below after the session. You might be surprised at the conclusion you come to.

Bill Squire.

Session Notes 14th March
Maria Walpurgis - Overture to Talestri Queen of the Amazons
Princess Anna Amalia - Flute Sonata in D
Maria Jaell - Cello Concerto
Louise Farrenc - Sextet for Piano and Winds
Florence Price - Piano Concerto in One Movement
 
Session Notes - 28th March
Beethoven - Leonora Overture No.3
Mozart - Violin Concerto No.4
Tchaikovsky - Rococo Variations
Beethoven - Wellington's Victory

“One of my best works”, said Beethoven of his Seventh Symphony. Another composer, however,  thought “The extravagances of Beethoven’s genius had now reached the ‘non plus ultra’, and Beethoven must now be ripe for the madhouse”. There was a lot going on in Beethoven’s mind as he composed this symphony, it has to be said. His mental state had driven him to a health spa - his deafness was increasing, a deep love affair had collapsed, and his financial state was embarrassing. On the brighter side Napoleon’s conquests were starting to fail (he despised Napoleon) and this gave him a deal of joy. All the associated emotions at this time came together in this symphony which, as another tilt at Napoleon, he premiered at a benefit concert for soldiers who had been wounded in a recent battle in which Napoleon was routed. It was this seventh symphony that was the feature work in this year’s final session.

Works by Beethoven Mozart, Bach and Saint-Saens made up the rest of our November programmes – what better way to wind up a successful year.

​A big ‘thank-you’  to the class of ’24 whose appreciation provided the impetus that has kept the music coming. Roll-on 2025!

Italian philosopher Umberto Eco is recorded as saying “I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth”.

Listeners to Shostakovich are often on the look-out for hidden messages in his music: some sign of political dissent, or a parody of the Georgian dictator encrypted in special note combinations or musical phrases.

Shostakovich was always quiet about what his music "meant." If there’s a story or meaning behind the First Cello Concerto, Shostakovich never wrote one down. He’s certainly not around anymore to tell it.

Ultimately, you need to be careful you don’t get distracted from the music, which is so powerful it doesn’t really need a story behind it. It stands up perfectly well on its own.

Similarly, Eduard Elgar’s “Enigma Variations”.  Although descriptive of fourteen people in Elgar’s life, it has bemused and challenged musical scholars, both professional and amateur, for decades as they try to unlock the secret enigma contained in his work, but so far, no convincing solution has been found.

Clearly, the best approach to both is just enjoy them for their wonderful music. You can check out both pieces of music and read notes about each by clicking on the links below, as well as the other shorter works that occupied our attention during the month: works by Smetana, de Falla, Schubert, Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn, which contain no enigma at all.
 
Session Notes 11th October
Schumann - Overture to Hermann and Dorothea
Shostakovich - Romance from "The Gadly"
Shostakovich - Cello Concerto No.1
Haydn - Symphony No.104 
 
Session Notes 25th October
Rossini - Overture to William Tell
Elgar - Enigma Variations
de Falla - Ritual Fire Dance
Beethoven -  Piano Sonata No. 17


Bill Squire.

Yoko Ono, when married to Beatles star John Lennon, created, with Lennon, three albums titled “Unfinished Music”, and Ono herself a book titled “Everything in the Universe is Unfinished”. “I never want projects to be finished”; said Ono, “I have always believed in unfinished work”. I got that from Schubert, you know, the ‘Unfinished Symphony.’”

Whether Schubert’s eighth Symphony was deliberately left unfinished or whether he forgot to finish it, or whether it was really ‘unfinished’ at all, has been debated ever since the work was discovered. Antonin Dvorak nearly didn’t get to complete his Violin Concerto because a world-renowned violinist kept wanting him to make changes to it, So Dvorak called ‘time’ and gave the concerto to another violinist to premiere.

​On the other hand, in the tradition of Christina Rosetti who claimed that the only thing sadder than an unfinished work, is one never begun, Felix Mendelssohn’s 3rd (or Scottish) Symphony, nearly didn’t get started. Having written down notes for it during a trip to Scotland, he embarked on a trip to Italy and was so taken with sights and sounds he found there that he forgot - until he went to write was to become his 4th (or Italian) Symphony.

No such concerns, however, for Mozart – so much music was there in his head! And especially should there be a young woman in the offing, and more so, again, if her father was a man of influence. Finished in seemingly no time at all, Mozart’s 9th Piano Concerto was his first fully mature piano concerto, dedicated to the young woman in question, and one he took as a show piece for a tour of Mannheim and Paris.

Details about our September programme and links to the recordings played can be found below.
 
 
Session Notes  13th September
Rossini - Overture to The Silken Ladder
Mendelssohn - Symphony No.3
Dvorak - Violin Concerto
 
Session Notes  27th September
Smetana - Overture to The Bartered Bride
Schubert - Rondo in A
Schubert - Symphony No.8
Mozart - Piano Concerto No.9
​

“Why fit in when you are born to stand out” is an ‘Elephant-in-the-Room’ quote often attributed to children’s author Dr Suess.

It could be applied to Johannes Brahms for whom Beethoven was the ‘elephant-in-the-room’ when it came to symphonic writing. Living in the shadow of Beethoven, Brahms was reluctant to compose a symphony for fear of it being compared to those of Beethoven. Hence it took him at least fourteen years to complete his first symphony.

It could be applied to Gabriel Fauré when he composed music for that classic ‘elephant-in-the-room” subject “death”. Faure’s Requiem is unique. He doesn’t comply totally with the traditional text. The anguish, loss and horrors of Death and Judgement Day, common to musical settings by other composers, are left by the wayside. Fauré concentrates on the true meaning of the word "Requiem", or "rest". His Requiem is about peaceful acceptance and release, and the music is serene, elevating, comforting.

Beethoven’s own ‘elephant-in-the-room’ was his ‘Septet for Wind and Strings’. The concert-going public loved it so much to the detriment of their acceptance of other works of his - works which Beethoven considered superior - that he could not bear to talk about it. “I wish I had burnt it”, he is reputed to have said of the Septet. 

For your interest and enjoyment here are the links to the notes and recordings for these and other works which occupied us in the month of August.
 
Session Notes 9th August
Introduction to Academic Festival Overture
Brahms - Academic Festival Overture
Beethoven - Septet
Webern - Langsamer Satz
Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 12
 
Session Notes  23rd August
Beethoven - Prometheus Overture
Brahms - Symphony No.1
Faure Requiem - Netherlands Choir
Faure Requiem - Kings College Choir
Faure Requiem - Latin to English Text
 
Bill Squire.

English author CS Lewis wrote: “Devils are depicted with bats' wings and good angels with birds' wings, not because anyone holds that moral deterioration would be likely to turn feathers into membrane, but because most men like birds better than bats”.

Birds, angels, and devils, featured largely in our July programmes. For a university graduation ceremony Finnish composer Rautavaara wrote a “Concerto for Birds and Orchestra” in which the orchestra part is juxtaposed with bird sounds from the Lapland bogs and marshes recorded by the composer himself. His fellow compatriot Sibelius was inspired by the sight of swans flying overhead as he wrote the final movement of his 5th Symphony. Violinist Niccolo Paganini was such a genius that rumours were put about that his soul had been sold to the devil – the violin sometimes being described as the devil’s instrument only adding to the spread of the rumours. We listened to and watched the playing of his first violin concerto – a ‘devilishly difficult’ work to master. Argentinian musician Astor Piazolla reimagined the Tango which while winning admiration in some quarters saw him receiving a ‘devil of a time’ from others for meddling with the sounds of the people”. Richard Strauss had a similar reception for the first outing of his tone poem ‘Don Juan’.

As for ‘bats’, maybe that could apply to this convenor for presenting works this month that were ‘new’ both in composition and to the class members. You be the judge, however. Links to the notes and recordings played are listed below.

Bill Squire.

Albert Einstein once said: “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new”. Robert Schumann made a grave mistake in experimenting with a device to strengthen his fingers for his planned future as a concert pianist. It so damaged his fingers that it ruined any chance of his becoming a pianist. This led to his turning to a career in musical composition. The outcome of this decision to try something new was his being acclaimed one of the most important composers of the nineteenth century. Schumann succeeded in a magnificent manner by composing what is acclaimed “probably the most beautiful of Romantic concertos. This flawless masterpiece is one of the most outstanding and romantically inspired concertos in the repertoire”.

Austrian-American composer Arnold Schoenberg thought Brahm’s 1st Piano Quartet was something of a “mistake” because the piano tended to overwhelm the other instruments. 70-plus years after the event he decided to do something new with it by arranging it for Orchestra so that the other instruments could be heard. Schoenberg’s transcription has been variously described as a “masterpiece” and as “an over-rated travesty”.

Antonin Dvorak began his working life as a butcher. At the age of 13 he was inducted into the Butcher’s Guild of Zlonice. Thankfully for us, and audiences the world over, his musical talent shone through and he changed career path. in 1889 he was inducted into the Bohemian Academy of Science, Literature and Arts. His 8th symphony was composed in celebration of his election.

These compositions were the prime focus of our June sessions. More detail and description of other works plus links to the recordings played are available below.


​Bill Squire.

14th June
Session Notes
Glinka - Overture Ruslan and Ludmilla
Brahms -  Piano Quartet No. 1
Tchaikovsky -  The Seasons (Complete)
Telemann - Flute Concerto in D


28th June
Session Notes
Schumann - Manfred Overture
Dvorak - Symphony No.8
Schumann - Piano Concerto

“To Richard Strauss, the composer, I take off my hat,” the conductor Arturo Toscanini once famously declared. “To Richard Strauss, the man, I put it on again.” Strauss, at one stage in his life was connected, musically, to Hitler’s Third Reich. Toscanini’s distinction between the individual and his work raises an age-old conundrum about art and morality: Should we allow the details of an artist’s biography to affect the way we view their work? Perhaps there is no easy answer, so perhaps we take their music as we find it and enjoy it for how that is. Which is how we approached Richard Strauss’  tone poem: “A Hero’s Life”.

Sergei Rachmaninov had his brush with politics finding himself on the receiving end of the wrath of Soviet Union officialdom following the publication of a critical letter that he’d written about the regime. His music was banned in Russia, allowing for neither its study nor its performance. Happily elsewhere it found acclaim and we were able to enjoy his Third Symphony – the penultimate work of a long career.

Similarly, Dmitri Shostakovich found himself in an ‘on and off’ relationship with the State. At an ‘on’ time he penned a Festive Overture to celebrate an anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Meanwhile in wartime England Ralph Vaughan-Williams was arrested on suspicion of being a German spy. It turned out he was making notes for a work to become known as “A Lark Ascending”.
​
Happily, other music for this month by Beethoven, Grieg and Mozart came without any political motivation or overtones. hence, they were able to be enjoyed simply for the beauty of the music. Details and links to the notes and recordings follow:
 
Session Notes  10th May
Beethoven - Consecration of the House
Rachmaninoff - Symphony No.3
Grieg - Piano Concerto
 
Session Notes  24th May
Shostakovich - Festive Overture
Richard Strauss - A Hero's Life
Additional Notes to 'A Hero's Life'
Vaughan-Williams - The Lark Ascending
Mozart -  Eine Kleine Nachtmusik


Bill Squire