Bookham Recorded Music Club
Bookham Recorded Music Club On the 20th October, our Chairman Sheila Morley entitled her programme Invitation to the Dance so Weber's title of the same name was a perfect choice to begin. This piece depicts the approach of the dancer, the lady's initial hesitation, the man's insistence, their dancing together, his thanks, her reply and their parting. A Minuet and a Badinerie from Bach's Orchestral Suite No.2 followed. The Minuet seems to have originated in the mid 17th century. It was the only dance form normally retained in sonatas, quartetes, symphonies etc. and Sheila chose Mozart's Minuetto Allegretto-Trio from his Symphony No.39. The pavane moves at a stately pace and was often followed by a Galliard. Ravel's version is a piano piece written in 1899 with a haunting melody. In Smetana's opera The Bartered Bride, he uses a Polka and a Furiant. The Polonaise dates back to the 16th Century from Poland and Sheila selected one written by Wieniawski. The Chaconne is French, probably of Spanish provenance. August Duyrand's Chaconne in Ab minor is an original work for the harp. Another 16th century Polish dance is the Mazurka which appears in Delibe's ballet Coppelia. Brahms originally composed his 21 Hungarian Dances for piano duet but Sheila selected his first dance to be played on the piano and violin. The next two dances were composed by Leroy Anderson; his Saraband and Blue Tango. Tchaikovsky wrote three national dances for his ballet Nutcracker; Russian Dance, Arabian Dance, and Chinese Dance. Sheila played the first dance from Dvorak's Slavonic Dances. Haydn's Menuetto & Trio from his Symphony No.4 “London” was followed by Chabrier's Habanera. The Tambourin was composed by Gossec (a leading composer of the French Revolution). Rachmaninov's Italian Polka, de Falla's The Ritual Fire Dance and the mixture of the Polka & Mazurka in Josef Strauss's Dragonfly led on to the Can-can from Offenbackh's Orpheus in the Underworld and the evening ended with Johann Strauss 11's Tales From The Vienna Woods. A programme of varying and unusual dances. John Dicker's More Of My Favourite Things, presented on 10th November, began with Four Cornish Dances composed by Malcolm Arnold. The Prophecy & Death of Taras Bulba is the third movement of a Slavic orchestral rhapsody entitled Taras Bulba composed by Janacek. Ave Verum Corpus K616 belongs to the last summer of Mozart's life and composed for the celebration of the Feast of Corpus Christie. Vaughan-Williams chose words by Walt Whitman for his A Sea Symphony No.1 and John selected A Song for all Seas, all Ships. The Intermezzo from Mascagni's opera Cavalleria Rusticana (a favourite from a very early age), then Willard White singing And In That Same Hour As they Feasted from Walton's Belshazzar's Feast. John selected Daydreams – Passions, from Berlioz's Symphony Fantastique. John's favourite composer is Rachmaninov; his work containing one melody after another. We heard the Allegro vivace from the Symphony No.2 in E minor. The Allegro scherzando from Saint-Saens Piano Concerto in G minor preceded the final work of Mahler's Symphony No.8 in E flat. John played the last ten minutes of an hour & 10 minute performance Final – Blicket auf zum Retterblick Alles Vervangliche. A triumphant ending of Favourite Things. We held our Christmas Meeting in the afternoon of the 14th December and we were joined by several members who have been unable to attend our evening gatherings. Sheila Roberts had compiled a programme of festive requests from our members and two quizzes. During the interval we posed for the Leatherhead Advertiser's photographer, eat mince pies, drank punch, drew the raffle, then settled down to a further selection of requests – musical and comical. There is too much to mention in this report but one item stood out – Mike Withers surprised us all, for instead of playing A Monologue by Bernard Miles, he recited the entire piece himself, complete with Bernard's rural accent, which was greeted with hilarity and loud applause. Mary Brooks. |
Our Programme Organiser – Sheila Roberts has always loved watching ice skating, & ice dancing, so her programme on 6th October contained pieces relating to performances on ice and types of dance. Let's Face The Music And Dance was chosen by Torvill & Dene for the waltz in their final Olympic Games. Constant Lambert combined the music of the ballet interludes from Le Prophete and 4 dances from the North Star from Meyerbeer's Les Patineurs for Frederick Ashton's ballet The Skaters starring the young Margot Fonteyn. Josef Strauss's most famous composition was the Pizzicato Polka which he wrote with his brother Johann 11. Astor Piazzolla's compositions revolutionized the traditional tango. Libertango incorporates elements from jazz and classical music. Torville was the bullfighter's cape and Dean the Matador in their dramatic Paso Doble danced to Capriccio Espagnol in their short routine in the Winter Olympics of 1984. La Gioconda by Ponchielli is an entertainment staged by one of the characters for his guests symbolising the conflict between darkness and light. The Mexican pianist Jose Pablo Moncahyo's best known work is his fantasy Huapango for Orchestra. This is the name of a Mexican musical style developed from the fandango. In 1976 John Curry was the flag bearer at the Winter Olympics. His programme was very balletic and graceful when he danced the Pas de Deux from Act 111 of Don Quixote by Minkus. Miramar-Zortzico is one of Sarasate's most bewitching creations containing a zortzico - a traditional basque dance. Torville & Dean's free dance in the 1984 Winter Olympics was Bolero and the piece was condensed to a skateable version of four minutes. With this reminder of Torville and Dean becoming the highest scoring figure skaters of all time for a single programme, Sheila ended her toe-tapping and exhilarating programme Face The Music.