It includes highlights of recent concerts, background on our recent change of rehearsal venue, as well as some limericks from our members.
]]>It includes contributions from members of the society, insights into the lives of some of our members, as well as puzzles and a diary of our activities. We hope you enjoy reading it!
For past versions of The Score, visit our archive.
]]>Visit our concerts page or download the programme for more information.
]]>It includes highlights of recent concerts, background on our recent change of rehearsal venue, as well as some limericks from our members.
]]>I am sure that most of you will know of the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok. He was born into the pre-First World War era of 1881 and watched, “as his native Hungary shrank like a puddle in the July sun”, as one commentator put it some years ago. (His actual birth-place is now in Romania.) After the Treaty of Trianon of 1920, when the country was partitioned, he even had difficulty visiting his mother, who continued to live in the re-named town of Bratislava (formerly Pozsony). By this time, he could not even visit the remoter parts of pre-war Hungary where he had made his now famous folk song collection. And what the First World War had begun, the Second continued. It was inevitable that like so many others in troubled central Europe, he would make his way to the USA, which he did in October 1940, never to return – or did he?
So, do we see a troubled soul? A private man never quite at home in the USA and whose music took some time to be fully accepted in that country. Unlike Erich Korngold, the Austrian ‘wunderkind’ escaping from the Nazi occupation, who made a fortune from film music in Hollywood, Bartok did not make much money and continuing poor health finally took its toll in New York on 26 September 1945, where he died. His last wish was to be buried in his native Hungarian soil and in 1988 that wish was addressed. The body was exhumed, placed in a coffin and loaded onto the QE2, which then set sail for Southampton. There is then an air of mystery about what happened next, but it does involve the Turner Sims Concert Hall.
]]>My report to the AGM was focussed mainly on asking more of you to become involved in running the choir. I’m delighted that so many of you responded to the call and would urge others to give an hour a week to our cause. In dealing with that particular issue at the meeting, I neglected to keep you informed of some medium-term developments, which I’m now happy to do here.
Future concerts. As you know, our programme for next year was planned with profit in mind. Clearly, we need a healthy bank balance to afford Her Ladyship (that concert will cost around £10,000 to put on, so making a surplus will be very challenging). I also wanted us to establish a “home” venue and, whilst I acknowledge the limitations of St Mary’s, I very much hope that it fits the bill. There are significant advantages in having a central, relatively inexpensive venue which we use regularly.
]]>As most of you will know from the various quips made by Aidan in the past, I have been engaged on what was to be a six-year project at the Southampton Recorded Music Society to review the so-called Russian nationalist composers. It began by describing the influence of the group known as The Might Handful, but the one Russian composer who sat to one side of this group kept cropping up as the overpowering influence and user of Russian national music. The irascible Balakirev, leader of The Five, appreciated Tchaikovsky’s talent, whilst at the same time regretting his western methods. However, all the great twentieth century Russian composers lionised Tchaikovsky. The young Stravinsky met the great man shortly before Tchaikovsky’s sudden death and he carried that memory with him for the rest of his life. Hence, I thought that I could not complete such a major review without devoting a complete talk to Tchaikovsky and his enduring influence. The following essay is an edited version of my talk given to the SRMS.
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