Out & About April 2017

... we’ve all got the music in us W ith bookings for the annual Newbury Spring Festival of classical music opening earlier this month, (it’s encouraging to note that 11 of this year’s concerts are already fully-booked), this is perhaps an appropriate time to briefly highlight the transforming power of classical music.

Benjamin Zander, the famous conductor, teacher and author believes everyone loves classical music, it’s just that a lot of people haven’t found out about it yet. A powerful and moving illustration of his approach to musical appreciation is available in a TED (Technology, Education, Design) talk he gave to an audience of 1,600 people in California in 2008. This short video has been viewed by more than eight million people and is available on Youtube (https://youtu.be/r9LCwI5iErE ). It is well worth watching, and includes an insightful analysis of Chopin’s popular E minor prelude op. 28 No. 4 (movie buffs will recognise it from The Pianist and Jack Nicholson’s rendition in Five Easy Pieces ). The revealing and novel way in which Zander deconstructs the first few notes of the Chopin

Gerald Finzi

which he continued to work on until 1953. He twice revised it, but after the abandonment of the piano concerto was content to leave it as a single movement. Nevertheless it was not performed in the composer’s lifetime, and the title was given to it by Finzi’s executors. Its calm serenity and quintessential Englishness is typical of the composer’s slow movements. Eclogue continues to ascend Classic FM’s annual Hall of Fame top 300 and is at number 101 in the 2017 list. Interestingly, three out of the top five compositions in Classic FM’s 2017 Hall of Fame list are by English composers. The single most popular piece of music is The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Also by the same composer and at number three is Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis . Elgar’s Enigma Variations is in fourth spot. A great vote of support for English composers and although Eclogue may not be in Classic FM’s top 100, (at least not yet), it is nonethe- less an excellent example of the transforming effect of classical music. For more information about the Newbury Spring Festival turn to p37 and for a chance to win a pair of tickets to see Voces8 plus a pre-concert dinner at The Crown & Garter turn to p40

Based in Somerset and rural Berkshire, Southern Sinfonia recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. They play a diverse and exciting repertoire and present world-class performances of the highest quality across the South of England, all year round. They firmly believe everyone deserves the opportunity to experience classical music and this conviction has led to a thriving Education and Outreach programme, which works with more than 6,000 local school children and young adults a year. Southern Sinfonia is currently hosting a series of lunchtime Café Concerts at the Corn Exchange, Newbury and their next concert is on Friday, April 21. My take on the classical music world from a local perspective would not be complete without a brief mention of the British composer, Gerald Finzi (1901-1956). Finzi is best known as a choral composer, but also wrote in other genres. Large-scale compositions include the cantata Dies natalis for solo voice and string orchestra, and his concertos for cello and clarinet. He lived locally for a number of years at Ashmansworth Farm, near Newbury. Eclogue , composed in 1929, is a comparatively modest movement for piano and strings and was the slow movement of an unfinished piano concerto that Finzi had begun in 1927-8 and

prelude for the musical layman is fascinating. Incidentally, the first musical example featured in the talk is Mozart’s

Sonata in C major K545 . As well as the Newbury Spring Festival, residents in the Newbury area are also well-served with classical music through Southern Sinfonia. Mozart

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