We meet on the last Monday of each month at Anne’s house.
This month, it was Margaret’s turn to choose one of her favourite pieces of music – she chose Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata’ and ‘the Gadfly’ by Shostakovich.
Amongst the pieces we played were the theme score from ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’. ‘Cinema Paradiso’, ‘The Pantomime’ and Adrian Munsey’s beautiful ‘The Distance Between’.
Neil and Denise will be choosing their favourites for August.
At this month’s meeting, Matthew chose as some of his favourite pieces, a selection from Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances and Ann Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. We enjoyed, amongst other pieces – Mozart’s Trumpet Concerto in D,
the lovely theme tune by Debbie Wiseman from the film ‘Wilde’, and two other pieces by the same composer – ‘Snowdrop’ and ‘A Pearl Morning’.
We also listened to ‘Romance’ from ‘The Gad Fly’ by Shostakovich the atmospheric tune to ‘Yellowstone’ and Puccini’s ‘Che Gelida Manina’ from ‘La Boheme’ sung by the wonderful Joseph Calleja.
May. At this month’s meeting, Denise chose ‘Wedding Day at Troldhagen’ from Grieg’s ‘Pear Gynt’ and part of Haydn’s ‘Creation’. I chose a beautiful orchestral arrangement of Dvorak’s ‘Song to the Moon’ and the soprano Emma Kirkby singing ‘La Data Dominum’ by Mozart.
We also played, ‘Symphony No. 3’ by Samuel Wesley, ‘Everything is Beautiful’ by 24 year old Alberto Giarolli, the ‘Chariots of Fire’ theme tune, the stunning 2nd m/m of Shostakovich’s 2nd piano concerto and Liszt’s ‘Dream of Love’
Still all enjoying our musical sessions and the refreshments !
April. Margaret chose for her favourite music – Mozart’s ‘Eine Kleine Nachtmusic’, ‘Oboe Quartet in F Major’ and ‘Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major” and Lyn chose ‘Pomp & Circumstance March’ by Elgar and Grieg’s ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’.
We also played many wonderful pieces – ‘The Balcony Scene’ from ‘Romeo & Juliet’ arranged by Craig Armstrong, ‘My Father’s Favourite’ from ‘Sense & Sensibility’ – Patrick Doyle’ ‘The Distance Between’ – Adrian Munsey; a lively ‘Live & Let Die’ from a Bond film of the same name, written by Paul and Linda McCartney, ‘Invitation to the Dance’ by Carl Maria von Weber and the wonderful ‘Andante Festivo’ by Sibelius.
We finished off the morning as usual, with cake and coffee and are all looking forward to next month’s selection, with Denise and Anne choosing their favourites – always difficult as we love so many !
At the last meeting of the group we played ‘The Watermill’ by our home-grown composer, Ronald Binge, ‘Overture to La Chenerentola’ by Rossini, a very bubbly and frantic piece typical of this composer, who once boasted that he could write a musical piece on anything, even a laundry list;
‘Adios Sonia de Gloria’ by Carlo Inasense, sung by the brilliant British tenor Freddie de Tomasso, an instrumental version of Schubert’s ‘Ave Maria’ and ‘Ashokan Farewell’ by Jay Ungar – a wonderful farewell piece of music he wrote for his pupils at the end of a summer school in New York.
Neil’s choice of his favourite pieces was the ‘William Tell Overture’ by Puccini and Ann chose the music of John Stainer from ‘The Crucifiction’ – ‘God so Loved the World’ and John Field’s ‘Nocturn No. 1 in E Flat major’
We were sustained as usual, by tea,coffee and lots of cake!!
We met on Monday 26 February when it was the turn of Matthew and Anne to choose some of their favourite pieces of music. Matthew chose a CD by Karl Jenkins with the beautiful voice of Kiri Te Kanawa singing his arrangements and Anne chose the overture from Pygmalian by Rameau and an instrumental version of ‘My heart will go on’ from ‘Titanic’ played by the Two Cellos.
We continued with a Trumpet Concerto by Mozart, ‘The arrival of the Queen of Sheba’ by Handel, ‘Nocturn in B Flat Minor’ by Chopin and ‘Zion Hears the Watchman Singing’ by Bach – among other pieces.
Halfway, it was the turn of coffee and cakes. The time passed too quickly and next month’s music is already being planned.
We met on Monday 26 January and as usual, played some wonderful and inspiring music – the theme tune from the film ‘Dances with Wolves’, ‘Czardas’ by Vittorio Monti – a very fast piece – a Hungarian folk dance that originated in country taverns and is known for its alternating fast and slow sections – the dance is a courting ritual – and the best of luck to them at that incredibly fast speed.; ‘Paladio’ by Karl Jenkins and ‘The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra’ by Benjamin Britten. For their favourite pieces of music, Lyn chose Luciano Pavarotti singing ‘Una Furtiva Lagrima’ and Denise chose the Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 by J.S.Bach.
The meeting this month was on 26 August. Amongst the pieces played was Haydn’s lovely cello concerto; ‘Sailing By’ by Ronald Binge – who played with the Mantovani orchestra before composing his own songs, and was said to have introduced the famous cascading strings; the ‘Serenade for Strings’ by Tchaikovsky and ‘Pavane’ by Faure. The personal choice musical piece was ‘Marietta’s Leid’ chosen by Anne.
In July, ”a favourite piece’ was chosen by Margaret – it was ‘Wings of the morning’ from the ‘Mass of the children’ by the wonderful John Rutter. The monthly pieces enjoyed were, amongst others, ‘Romance No. 2’ – Beethoven; ‘Judex’ from ‘Mores et Vita’ – Gounod ; the title film track from ‘The Cider House Rules’- Rachel Portman; ‘Waltz No. 2 from Jazz Suite No. 2’ – Shostakovich, ‘Palladio’ – Sir Karl Jenkins and ‘The Romance’ from ‘The Gad Fly’ – a fiery western by Shostakovich.
It’s very difficult to decide what category film tracks and television theme tunes should be listed under but as they are obviously not ‘pop’ we are including them with classical music – some are very lovely and memorable – for instance the track from ‘Dances with Wolves’ starring Kevin Costner, is played practically every day on Classic FM as is ‘Ladies in Lavender’ and the theme from the TV series ‘Morse’ is asked to be played almost as much.
Denise will choose one of her favourites next month.
At the June meeting it was Anne’s turn to play one of her favourite pieces – she chose the lovely music of Michael Haydn – ‘Notturno in F’.
Among the pieces also played – ‘The Liberty Bell’ by Sousa; ‘Clarinet Concerto’ by Mozart; ‘Nocturn in B Flat Minor’ by Chopin’; ‘Overture to Pygmalion’ by Rameau and ‘The Czardas’ from ‘Coppelia’ by Delibes.
A lovely 2 hours of glorious music plus some lemon drizzle cake and drinks !
This month we met on 29 February. As usual the music was wonderful and varied.- among the pieces played – ‘The Habanera’ by Chabrier, ‘The Swan’ by Saint Saens, ‘Cider House Rules’ taken from a film starring Michael Caine, ‘Paladio’ by Karl Jenkins and the Cello Concerto No. 1 by Haydn – one of my personal favourites. It was Margaret’s turn to choose a piece of music – she chose Etude No. 3 in E ‘Tristesse’ Op. 10 No. 3.
November 2023. Another lovely morning of beautiful music – mostly classical but some film scores and TV theme tunes too.
It was Neil’s turn to choose one of his favourites and he chose ‘A Venetian Coronation 1595’ by Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli. He chose Sonata 333 and Toccata 1 – grand ceremonial music for the Coronation of the Doge.
We then worked our way through the list – an instrumental of ‘My heart will go on’ from Titanic by James Horner; ‘Somewhere in my memory’ from ‘Home Alone’ by John Williams; Guitar Concerto No. 1 in A major – Mauro Guiliani, ‘Air on a G String’ – JS Bach and ‘There is no Peace in the World’ by Vivaldi sung beautifully by Emma Kirkby.
As the next meeting is so close to Christmas, it was decided to have a break and meet again in January.
October 2023. This month it was Ann’s turn to choose a piece of her favourite music, she chose ‘Wild Bears’ from ‘Wand of Youth’ by Edward Elgar, a fast and furious piece which she stated she would use to relax to after a frantic day at work.
Amongst the music played was ‘The Magnificent Seven’ by Elmer Bernstein – which has been ranked by the American Film Institute as the 8th greatest American film score of all time; ‘The Radetzky March’, ‘Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves’, ‘The Entertainer’ by Scott Joplin, used as the theme music for the wonderful film ‘The Sting’, ‘O Holy Night’ voted the nation’s favourite carol in 2022, and ‘Lascia Chio Pianga’ by Handel sung beautifully by the Welsh soprano Elin Manahan Thomas.
Another very enjoyable morning of glorious music, and members fortified by the usual coffee and cake!
September it was the turn of Denise to choose one of her favourite pieces of music. She chose ‘Benedictus’ from ‘The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace’ by Karl Jenkins.
We played a variety of music – ‘Cello Suite No. 1’ by Bach; music from ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ by Ennio Morricone, ‘Arrival of the Queen of Sheba’ by Handel, the crazy ‘Condide’ by Bernstein, ‘The Clock Symphony’ by Haydn and the lovely ‘Eliza’s Aria’ by Elena Kats-Chernin, born in Uzbekistan and the first graduate at the Conservatory of Music in Australia, to be granted a double degree as pianist and composer, eventually winning many awards and named Officer of the Order of Australia in 2019 for her contribution to music.
At this month’s meeting we again played many lovely pieces, amongst them: ‘The Tango’ by Albeniz; ‘The Chinese Dance’ from ‘The Nutcracker’ by Tchaikovsky; ‘Andante Festivo’ by Sibelius and the ‘finale of the Violin Concerto No. 1 ‘by Max Bruch – this last piece was music that Bruch grew to hate, it was very popular and wherever he appeared people requested it to be played. However, he sold the rights and thereafter never received a penny for it, but stated , correctly it transpired ,that he would probably be remembered for his Violin Concerto No. 1 alone although he wrote many other lovely pieces.
It was Lyn’s turn to choose one of her favourites and she chose The Scherzo (Presto) from the 2nd m/m of Concerto Symphonique No. 4 in D Minor by Henry Litoff, played beautifully on the piano by Peter Donohoe.
We ended the meeting as usual with tea and cake!
The group met on the May Bank Holiday Monday. We were a smaller group than usual – 2 members suffering at home with Covid!!
It was Margaret’s turn to choose one of her favourite pieces of music, she chose ‘Clair de Lune’ by Debussy.
We played some more beautiful music including the film score to ‘Schindler’s List’, an instrumental version of ‘Hymn to Love’ the song made famous by Edith Piaf, ‘Elevatsione’ by Dominico Zipoli, a Jesuit who died far too young whilst preaching in South America, a Michael Haydn piece -‘Notturno in F’ and the lovely duet from ‘La Boheme’ by Puccini – ‘Oh Sauve Fanciulla’ sung by the Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja and soprano Alesandra Kurzak. Puccini was the most popular of all opera composers even though they were all about suffering and death.
At this month’s meeting we again played many lovely pieces, amongst them: ‘The Tango’ by Albeniz; ‘The Chinese Dance’ from ‘The Nutcracker’ by Tchaikovsky; ‘Andante Festivo’ by Sibelius and the ‘finale of the Violin Concerto No. 1 ‘by Max Bruch – this last piece was music that Bruch grew to hate, it was very popular and wherever he appeared people requested it to be played. However, he sold the rights and thereafter never received a penny for it, but stated , correctly it transpired ,that he would probably be remembered for his Violin Concerto No. 1 alone although he wrote many other lovely pieces.
It was Lyn’s turn to choose one of her favourites and she chose The Scherzo (Presto) from the 2nd m/m of Concerto Symphonique No. 4 in D Minor by Henry Litoff, played beautifully on the piano by Peter Donohoe.
We ended the meeting as usual with tea and cake!
We met on the 1 May at Anne’s house in Tregynon. It was Ann’s turn to choose one of her favourite pieces of music and it was a piece by Alice Mary Smith.
We enjoyed pieces by Phil Coulter, Albinoni’s beautiful ‘Adagio’- which it seems he wrote very little of, the overture to La Cenerentola – Rossini’s take on ‘Cinderella’ and his overture to ‘The Silken Ladder’ a comic opera. Rossini was well known for leaving everything until the last minute, but he always, genius as he was, managed to meet the deadlines.
He is reputed to have said ‘give me a laundry list and I will set it to music’ A truly talented composer, whose pieces are always full of joy. Freddie de Thomasso – an English/Italian tenor, is wowing the world of opera with his wonderfully strong voice and we played ‘Adios Sonia de Gloria’ by Carlo Inasense which demonstrated his amazing range.
The next meeting will be on 29 May – another Bank Holiday.
At this month’s meeting (March) we played the’ 2nd Oboe Concerto’ by Albinoni, Beethoven’s’ Symphony No. 7′, ‘Dance of the Savages’ by Rameau, ‘Invitation to the Dance’ by C.M. von Weber and ‘Ashokan Farewell’ by Jay Ungar among others.
Denise selected a track of her favourite music to play – a piece from
‘Cavalleria Rusticana’ by Mascagne which we all enjoyed. Ann will choose next month’s personal choice.
Because of commitments, there will be no meeting in April but 2 in May.
Classical Music Group
The first meeting of this newly created group, was held at Anne’s home on Monday 20 February.
The group enjoyed pieces such as ‘Symphony No. 5’ by Beethoven, ‘Canon in D’ by Pachelbel, ‘Music for the Royal Fireworks’ by Handel to name but a few. A short synopsis of the life of each of the composers was read out by Anne.