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Leatherhead Concert & Arts Society

Special General Meeting


We invited Subscribing Members and members of our audience to attend today's Online Special General Meeting at 2pm.

Subscribing Members whose subscription has been live at any point between February 25th and May 19th were entitled to vote on the first two motions. All present were entitled to vote on the third proposal (to resume live concerts).

The business of this SGM was limited to:

        i) review of accounts for 2020, so they can be submitted to the Charities Commission - click here for documents
        ii) amendments to the Constitution to allow and control online meetings - click here for documents
        iii) an indicative poll of all present on when to resume live concerts: July 1st, August 1st, not even by September 1st

The results of this poll, the views of LMC's stewards, and a walk-round by two Trustees, will all be considered at a meeting of the Trustees on 27th May where the sole business will be how prepared we are for each of the likely start dates for live concerts with an audience in the Church.


FOLLOW_UP:  The meeting accepted both the Financial Report and Accounts, and the Constitutional Amendments.
On the question of personal preference of a date to restart live concerts the vote of all present (not just paid members) plus proxy votes, was:
1st July  - 14 (includes 4 proxy votes)
5th August - 5 (includes 1 proxy vote)
Nobody voted to delay beyond September 2nd

The cumulative effect of that vote is:
1st July  - 14 (56%)
5th August - 19 (76%)
2nd September - 25 (100%)

The Trustees meet on Thursday 27th to consider the practicalities of these start dates. Without knowing what might be thrown at us last minute, principally by Government*, it will be a tricky assessment of these options. We will seek to minimise risk to visiting musicians, our volunteers, and our audience. An email will announce the decision on Friday 28th May.


*This week some choirs held rehearsals for half their number on their usual Monday evening. Government 'clarified' the guidelines on Tuesday afternoon, saying the 'rule of 6' applies to amateur choirs until 21st June. So the 'other half' of choirs won't be rehearsing next Monday, in fact no choirs can rehearse before 22nd June unless the guidelines are rationalised.

You have a better chance of singing in Sainsbury's or WH Smith than in your usual rehearsal venue!

If you think that is irrational, please take a look at this Making Music page and sign the petition.
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Music on Thursdays - Online

Thursday 20th May 2021

Stravinsky & Disney
 - a match made in heaven ?

Available: from Thursday 20th May

Guest host: Lynda Chang
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Programme

Stravinsky & Disney
 - a match made in heaven ?

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (1882-1971)

from music for the ballet The Rite of Spring Op 15 (1913)
    Danse des adolescentes    Dance of the Teenage Girls


from Concerto in Eb 'Dumbarton Oaks'   (1937-8)
    II Allegretto


from the opera-oratorio Œdipus Rex  Œdipus the King  (1927)
French Libretto: Jean Cocteau (1889-1963)
Latin Translation: Abbé Jean Daniélou (1905-1974)
    Tiresias' Scene


from Act Two of the opera-oratorio Œdipus Rex 
    Nonn' erubescite, reges    Are you not ashamed, O princes?


Stravinsky, in collaboration with Samuel Dushkin (1891-1976)
Suite Italienne (from Pulchinella) for violin and piano  (1934)
    I     Introduzione: Allegro moderato    Introduction: Moderately fast
    II    Serenata: Larghetto    Serenade: Broad-ish
    III  Tarantella: Vivace    Tarantella (dance): Lively

    IV   Gavotte con due variazioni - Allegretto - Allegretto piu tosto moderato
                Gavotte with two variations - Fairly brisk - Fairly brisk, modreately firm
    V    Scherzino: Presto alla breve    Joke: Very fast, two to the bar
    VI  Minuetto - Finale    Minuet - Finale


Abridged score by Leopold Anthony Stokowski (1882-1977)
for the Disney animated film Fantasia (1940)
The Rite of Spring


Concert duration: 60 minutes
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We need your help to fund our concerts

recorded 'as live' by professional musicians
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Stravinsky & Disney - a match made in heaven ?

Greetings,
The name Stravinsky does not command, perhaps, quite the universal appeal of Beethoven or Schubert.  However, he undoubtedly shook up the classical music world and became one of the leading and most influential composers of the 20th century.

His early claim to fame was as a composer of ballet music commissioned by Diaghilev;   Firebird (1910) - instant acclaim;  Petrushka (1911) - not so much.   Then came The Rite of Spring (1913) - riots.  The music of the first two was in a traditional 'Russian' style, reflecting his studies with Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) who was the leading composer of the time.

To this day, The Rite of Spring remains Stravinsky's seminal work.  He was clearly inspired by the subject of primitive rituals that celebrate the arrival of spring, with a young girl chosen as sacrifice to the sun god, who then dances herself to death.

Our familiarity with the thumping earth-shaking rhythms of The Rite makes it hard for us to imagine how it must have shocked its first audience in 1913.  The music was like nothing that had come before.  With an orchestra of over 100 musicians, it was noisy and colourful, full of off-beat rhythms and clashing dissonances.  The brutality of some of the orchestral sounds - whilst totally in keeping with the subject matter - was extreme and shattering.  No wonder the premiere caused a riot in Paris.

Understandably, many choreographers have welcomed the challenge of setting this exuberant music to ballet.  The following dance is set to the most famous and pulse-racing music of all.


Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (1882-1971)
from music for the ballet
The Rite of Spring Op 15 (1913)
Danse des adolescentes 
Dance of the Teenage Girls     (3m10)
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During the early 1920s, there was a trend for western composers to turn their back on the full-blown German romanticism of the late 19th century.  Some experimented with atonality and serialism.  Stravinsky chose to cast an eye back to the Baroque and Classical styles of the 17th and 18th centuries.  In combining his unique musical language with the cleaner, more transparent lines of the past, his works came to represent a style called 'neoclassicism' which influenced not only his peers but also composers who came after him.  Some of his disparate disciples include Les Six (France), Kurt Weill (Germany) and Aaron Copland (US).

[Les Six were: Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honnegger, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc and Germaine Tailleferre.]

One important feature of neo-classicism is the use of smaller resources.  Gone were the 100+ forces of The Rite.   Stravinsky's Dumbarton Oaks Concerto (1938), written for a chamber (small) orchestra, features characteristically unpredictable rhythms and dissonances.  In spirit, his instrumental counterpoint recalls Bach's Brandenburg Concertos.  The title, Dumbarton Oaks, is taken from the estate belonging to an American couple who commissioned the work to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary.

Here is a snippet to take us into Stravinsky's neo-classical world.  It is energetically performed by Simon Rattle and members of his Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.


from Concerto in Eb 'Dumbarton Oaks'   (1937-8)
II Allegretto  (2m50)


performed by members of the Berliner Philharmoniker (Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra) conducted by Sir Simon Rattle in the Berlin Philharmonie, in February 2016

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The opera / oratorio Œdipus Rex (1927) was famously credited by Leonard Bernstein as Stravinsky's most 'awesome product' from his neo-classical period.

It is Greek tragedy, based on the French play by Cocteau, but translated into Latin. Perhaps this use of a dead language was a deliberate device that Stravinsky employed to create distance in the re-telling of a powerful, emotional tale.  Once again it is scored for a small orchestra. 

The main characters are accompanied and commented upon by a male chorus, reminiscent of the role in classical Greek drama.  Although the vocal lines often appear to be angular and strident, they are embedded within a traditional harmonic idiom.  I admire this opera immensely for its stark emotional intensity.  Sadly, due to its length (short), it is not often performed.

Here is a dramatic excerpt that is sub-titled in both Latin and English.  It helps to know what's going on.  Tiresias is the Oracle who reveals that Jocasta's late husband, the King, was murdered by another king.


from the opera-oratorio Œdipus Rex  Œdipus the King  (1927)
French Libretto: Jean Cocteau (1889-1963)
Latin Translation: Abbé Jean Daniélou (1905-1974)
Tiresias' Scene (7m45)
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The following excerpt features the great Jessye Norman in the part of Jocasta - the Queen who is mother AND wife of Oedipus.  She is denouncing Tiresias - repeating the phrase 'Oracles always lie' to convince herself as much as anyone else. 

The production for Japan channels both Greek tragedy and Japanese Kabuki theatre traditions in perfect harmony.  Just look at those amazing paddle hands - and feel all that suppressed emotion welling up.
 
from Act Two of the opera-oratorio Œdipus Rex 
Nonn' erubescite, reges
Are you not ashamed, O princes?  (7m42)
 

 Jessye Norman sings the part of Jocasta
Seiji Ozawa conducts the Saito Kinen Orchestra in this filmed version of Julie Taymor's 1993 Kabuki-inspired production for the Saito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto, Japan.
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Due to Stravinsky's fruitful collaboration with the American violinist, Samuel Dushkin, he made an arrangement of his earlier ballet Pulchinella (1920) for the two of them. 

The result was the Suite Italienne (1930s) which contains some of his most approachable music - full of charm, humour, grace and elegance, yet with plenty of rhythmic and harmonic bite. 

The suite is made up of six contrasting and delightful dance movements.

Here is a historic recording of the Suite Italienne, in two halves - played with relish by Itzhak Perlman and the 20 year-old Ken Noda, at the White House in 1982. 

If you watch carefully, you can see the unmistakeable heads of President and Nancy Reagan in the front row seats.

The buzzing at the start of the recording soon fades.
Stravinsky, in collaboration with Samuel Dushkin (1891-1976)
Suite Italienne (from Pulchinella) for violin and piano  (1934)
I  Introduzione: Allegro moderato    Introduction: Moderately fast
II  Serenata: Larghetto    Serenade: Broad-ish
III  Tarantella: Vivace    Tarantella (dance): Lively    (7m40)

IV Gavotte con due variazioni - Allegretto - Allegretto piu tosto moderato
        Gavotte with two variations - Fairly brisk - Fairly brisk, modreately firm
V Scherzino: Presto alla breve    Joke: Very fast, two to the bar
VI Minuetto - Finale    Minuet - Finale   (9m15)

performed by Itzhak Perlman, violin, with Ken Noda, piano
in the presence of President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan,
at the White House, Washington DC, in 1982
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By around 1939-40, Stravinsky was living in America.  Opportunistically, he began to associate himself with film music.  The first major film to feature his music was Disney's Fantasia (1940).  Fantasia is a collection of eight animated segments accompanied by classical music from the likes of Bach, Tchaikovsky, Dukas and Beethoven.

The Rite of Spring segment, albeit with the original music cut down and re-arranged, was chosen to depict the history of the earth's beginnings, the first living creatures, through to the reign and extinction of the dinosaurs.  It is hard to believe that this animation was created 80 long years ago, yet endures today as a triumph of the marriage of music and images.

And as for the common childhood fixation with dinosaurs in western societies - this must be where it all started.

Abridged score by Leopold Anthony Stokowski (1882-1977)
The Rite of Spring   (22m15)


performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Leopold Stokowski, for the Disney film Fantasia, released

I hope you have enjoyed today's programme. 

Lynda Chang
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We hope you have enjoyed Lynda Chang's Stravinsky Selection for Music on Thursdays

Next Thursday, May 27th, we introduce an entirely new host,

the organist David Gibbs

The first Thursday in June will be a special 'as live' recording for Music on Thursdays

3rd June:  Iñigo Mikeleiz Berrade, accordion

We will then continue with weekly video selection concerts until the end of June
with hopes of going live at Leatherhead Methodist Church from July 1st

comments welcome:  [email protected]
▼ last week's selection of string quartet movements ▼
▼ next week's selection ▼ (not yet active)

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We need your help to fund our concerts recorded 'as live' by professional musicians
► Did you listen ?

►Did you remember to give afterwards ?

Here is a further chance to do so

If the concerts cover their costs we will be able to do more.

Please donate now !

Many thanks to those who have donated already.
You set us all a great example !
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These eight concert recordings for Leatherhead
remain online

click on the buttons below to Listen (and watch) Again

and please tell your friends about them too !

Buck Brass
trumpet • horns • trombone
Gabrieli  •  Brahms
Thomas Adams   •  Steven Verhelst
Wilhelm Peterson-Berger
Glazunov  •  Mozart

Ibrahim Aziz
treble, bass & Renaissance viols
Diego Ortiz ♦ Rebecca Rowe ♦ Tobias Hume
Bach ♦ Le Sieur de Machy ♦ Telemann
Le Sieur de Sainte-Colombe ♦ Carlos Martínez Gil

Thomas Ang
piano
Bülow ♦ Liszt ♦ Amy Beach
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Phil Hopkins
chromatic harmonica
Stuart Whatton
piano

Carmenco

flute, voice &
2 guitars

organist

Marion Bettsworth

Diphonon
viola &
accordion
Duo

Jazz on Thursday
with
pianist

Eddie Lee
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Never miss a concert . . .

Our weekly* newsletter tells you about upcoming concerts and other local music events

*weekly - only during the weekly concert season, occasional at other times
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Concert Selections Still Available

for your listening on this Website:

Please click on a title to go to the concert webpage
• Marina Kan's 2020 AGM Piano Concert

• Concert for St George's Day and Shakespeare's Birthday

• Music on May Day

• Music for VE Day 75th Anniversary

• Piano à Deux - Linda Ang Stoodley & Robert Stoodley, 4 hands on 1 piano

• Clocks & Cathedrals (musical clocks, that is)

• Guitars & Friends - a guitar medley

• Beethoven & Haydn String Quartets

• Cello Tango - from solos to multi cellists

• Organs of Paris  ♥ Les Orgues de Paris

• Flute Fest

• Virtual Viola, hosted by Lynda Chang

• Multi Piano - pianos from two to 12 at a time

• From Sackbutt to Trombone

• Harp Haven - our President's 100th Birthday Concert

• Oboe Omnibus

• Gentle Guitar

• Music for Unusual Instruments

• Viola da Gamba, hosted by Ibrahim Aziz

• Music & the Military

• Choral Music

• Clarinet Compilation, hosted by Lynda Chang

• The Voice, hosted by Lynda Chang

• Beethoven 250, hosted by Peter Horsfield

• Eddie Lee's Jazz on Thursday - recorded as live for Arts e-Live

• Diphonon viola & accordion Duo - recorded as live for Arts e-Live

• Marion Bettsworth & organ of St Michael's Highgate - recorded as live for Arts e-Live

• CarmenCo - Carmen's Story in flute, voice & guitars - recorded as live for Arts e-Live

• Phil Hopkins, harmonica, Stuart Whatton, piano,
            From JS Bach to film music composer John Barry - recorded as live for Arts e-Live

• Musical Fireworks - a musical selection

• Music of the Musicals up to 1960 - a musical selection

• Thomas Ang's 2021 AGM Piano Concert - recorded as Live for Music on Thursdays

• Vivaldi 343rd Birthday Selection - hosted by Peter Steadman

• Saint-Saëns Centenary Selection - hosted by Peter Horsfield

• Music for the Lute - hosted by Lynda Chang

• Musicals 1960 to 1990 - hosted by Peter Steadman

• Ibrahim Aziz plays Renaissance viol, treble viol, bass viol - recorded 'as live'

• Music for Royal Weddings Selection - hosted by Peter Steadman

• Albinoni 350 Selection - hosted by Peter Steadman
 
• Yehudi Menuhin 105th Anniversary - hosted by Lynda Chang

• Sexual Intrigue in Opera - hosted by Liz Barnes

• Buck Brass  Trio/Quartet - trumpet, horns, trombone - recorded 'as live'

• String Quartet Movements - hosted by Lynda Chang
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Visit the making music channel on youtube

You will find lots of music videos recorded during lockdown

click on the logo
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