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Apologies to visitors to our blog for using it as an information service for our members. It’s just so convenient to do it this way. If you are not an orchestral member, this post is of little interest!
Newsletter September 2009
Welcome back to the new year for our orchestra; We hope you had an excellent Summer and are looking forward to some wonderful music making in the coming months.
Program. Much of this year’s program has now been decided, but some items need confirmation. We do not have a program or conductor, at this stage, for the Christmas Concert, but the committee is working on it! Likewise, we have been asked to repeat the Music in the Gardens concert in July 2010, but the choice of music will be made later after discussion with the Rotary Club. With these provisos, this is what the year ahead looks like:-
14th Nov 2009 Victoria Hall
Dvorak: Cello Concerto – soloist Ben Gregor-Smith
Lutoslawski: Little Suite (Mala Suite)
Schumann: Symphony 4
Christmas Concert: December 12th. St Andrew’s, Psalter Lane
Program to be announced.
20th March 2010 Victoria Hall
with Escafeld Choral Society
Tchaikovsky: Tempest Fantasy Overture
Vaughan Williams: In Windsor Forest
Vaughan Williams: Cantata ‘100th Psalm’
Beethoven: Symphony 6 ‘Pastoral’
12th June 2010 St Mark’s
Elgar: In the South
Khachaturian: Violin Concerto – soloist Keith Ramsall
Respighi: Pines of Rome
AGM. Notice is given that the AGM will take place on Tuesday, October 27th.
New Musical Director. Sadly, Ewa Strusinska will be leaving us at the end of the season nor will she be able to conduct the Christmas Concert. I think we all consider ourselves enormously privileged to have worked under her baton. She has stayed with us a year longer than her contract and it is time for her to move on to other things. The Committee is now starting the process of appointing her successor and we will be contacting a number of individuals to see if they are interested. We will also be asking contacts at the RNCM and elsewhere for recommendations.
The choice of a new musical director is crucial, and is a matter for the whole orchestra, not just the committee. We are actively seeking comments and suggestions from everyone; for instance, have you been particularly impressed by anyone who has taken sectional rehearsals or rehearsed us when Ewa was unavailable? Members of the Orchestra will be kept informed at all stages of this process.
“Opt-in” form for Concerts.
Some people come to rehearsals but, for perfectly valid reasons, may not be able to play in the actual concert. This is fine, but it would be very helpful if we knew the forces who are definitely committed to playing so that any ‘holes’ can be plugged. To this end, a form will be circulated during rehearsals on which players will sign up for the concert. It will be the responsibility of section heads to see that their players sign up. We hope this is not viewed as a bureaucratic waste of time. Knowing who is going to play, in advance, will be very useful.
Orchestra finances and AGM. The orchestras accounts will be circulated at the AGM (set for October 27th). At this stage We can report that we remain financially sound and there will be no increase in subs this year (per term £25, concession £15, Student £5). Please ask Kath for a Gift Aid form if you are a UK tax payer and have not yet filled one in. It makes a tremendous difference. It is likely that there will be a modest increase in subs for the year 2010/2011.
October 20th rehearsal. The Victoria Hall is not available on this day. This rehearsal will now take place in the Wesletan Reform Church, Sharrow Vale Rd S11 8ZB. Click on the link below for a map. then click ‘larger map’ to highlight the venue. http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/empw?url=http:%2F%2Fmaps.google.co.uk%2Fmaps%3Ff%3Dq%26source%3Ds_q%26hl%3Den%26geocode%3D%26q%3DS11%2B8ZB%26sll%3D53.800651,-4.064941%26sspn%3D17.18313,55.854492%26ie%3DUTF8%26hq%3D%26hnear%3DSheffield%2BS11%2B8ZB,%2BUnited%2BKingdom%26z%3D16%26ll%3D53.367447,-1.494482%26output%3Dembed&hl=en&gl=uk
Blog. We try to keep the blog up to date. Please feel free to comment using the ‘comments’ button at the end of each post. If you want to post something yourself, e-mail (davidoakley@btopenworld.com) who will tell you how to do it, or post it for you. D.O will be adding to the photostream of pictures from the highly enjoyable Sardinia trip over the next couple of weeks. The blog can be accessed on www.sheffieldphilharmonic.wordpress.com (add it to your favourites!)
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Welcome to the new concert season. The dates and venues are as follows :- 14th Nov – Victoria Hall, 12th Dec – St Andrew’s Psalter Lane, 13th March either Vic Hall or St Marie’s RC cathedral (more to follow on this!), 12th June – St Mark’s. We will be playing, in the Novemeber concert, Lutoslawski: Little suite, Dvorak Cello Concerto (Ben Gregor Smith) and Schumann symphony 4. I don’t have a definite programme for the other concerts yet, but it is rumoured that Respighi: Pines Of Rome may be on the cards (what do you think, Pete?!!!!!)
More soon…..
D
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Sardinia 2009 SPO, originally uploaded by davidoakley@btopenworld.com.
A short post to thank everyone for making the Sardinia trip such an enjoyable occasion, especially to Robin McEwan who coaxed a very acceptable sound (according to our enthusiastic audiences) from what turned out to be an unusually hybrid orchestra. I also want to thank our visiting musicians, Nikos, Alan, Emily, Joy, Llinos, Angiolo and the Sardinians, Alessio, Theresa, Mattia, Antonello and Inaria.
An enormous thankyou to Robert Meoni who played so beautifully in both concerts and whose phone conversations to Alghero were the catalyst for getting the trip off the ground.
Finally, once again, I cannot find thanks enough for Silvana Pinna, Uccio Oppes (from the Istituto Artistico e Musicale Giuseppe Verdi) and Signor Usai from the Parco Naturale di Porto Conte for their amazing generosity with their time, entertainment and hospitality.
Orchestra members might like to hear that we have been invited back to play again, this time in some ancient Nuraghic remains; what do you think.
If people send me their best photos, I can upload them onto the Flickr photostream and you can view them from the blog by clicking ‘more photos’ at the bottom (sorry that some extraneous pictures from our wedding seem to have found their way there, but two orchestra members did play on that occasion)
David and Catherine
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If you are new to Sheffield and would like to play with the SPO, you are very welcome to contact us. At the moment, the woodwind and horns are pretty much sorted, but we are always keen to know of players who are happy to deputise, or join us for “one off” occasions. String players are always welcome. The best way to find out if we are the right orchestra for you is to attend a rehearsal or two. We rehearse at 7:30 every tuesday (starting September 1st) in the Vicoria hall (opposite back entrance to the Crucible in Norfolk St). Full members pay (very modest) subs, but visitors are excused!
We are a friendly orchestra who aspire to play to a high standard, whilst not forgetting that we are mainly amateurs and play for the love of it. The general standard is grade 6 and up, but this is only a rough guide (some of our players are strong and are very supportive of those, like me, who are less talented!). We have a wonderful musical director. Several of us with cars are happy to transport people home if they don’t live too far away.
If you want more details send me an e-mail, davidoakley@btopenworld.com, and I will respond promptly.
D
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Apologies to visitors to the Blog for the absence of posts over the Summer. I have been pretty busy with the orchestras trip to Sardinia, but this is no real excuse. Over the next few days I will be posting a welcome to potential new players, a comment on the Sardinian trip with an invitation to uplaod photos, an update on concert dates and venues plus the programme for November, and the next in our features on Polish composers linked to a review of our last concert.
Meanwhile, rehearsals start next tuesday, September 1st. Subs will be collected on the door!
D
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Once again, apologies for using this discussion forum for a ‘business’ post. It is so convenient.
2009 is well underway and the concert in march with Brahms 4 and Poulenc Stabat Mater looks very exciting. We are now under the guidance of a ‘new look’ committee including Julia Robinson as secretary, Kath Hathaway as membership secretary and Neil Twist as a co-opted member. Subs can be given to Kath! The treasurer’s post is vacant and, until it is filled, I will act as caretaker.
Once again, we are committed to the Botanic Gardens concert.
Please feel free to comment on posts. If you want to post a new thread, drop me a line and I will tell you how to do it (davidoakley@btopenworld.com).
David
Learning that our wonderful string section were going to play a piece by Czyz, ( and on the not unreasonable assumption that some people may feel a trifle uninformed about the aforementioned composer) I hastened to glean a few gems for the blog. As usual, Wikipedia is the first stop, but Mr Czyz’s name appears in red (no article). Even Google scores a disappointing number of hits, most of which refer to someone else. So I consult a knowledgeable source who seldom lets one down. “Well” he says “Apart from being the sort of chap you want to get on a triple word score in Scrabble, I can’t tell you much, but it’s his 85th birthday the weekend of the concert”. Great! Fantastic! We’ll invite him over, put him up in the Rutland, have a party. I decide there and then to write the missing Wikipedia article. Progress is slow and so far the article is no more than a ’stub’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henryk_czyz) ‘Henryk Czyz b Grudziadz 16th June 1923 d Warsaw 16th Jan 2003, (puts paid to the party idea). My puny effort does, however, refer the reader to a more helpful source from which I have extracted much of what follows and who kindly gave us permission to use their picture. http://www.polmic.pl/osopis.php?lang=en&id=172&pop=wykonawcy&pf=%A0&cf=%A0&nf=performers.
He started as a law student and then changed track and graduated in music aged 29. He studied composition and conducting, initially with the Stanislaw Moniuszko Opera and moving on to most of the prestigious Polish orchestras in turn. He established an international reputation with concerts all over the world. Two recordings deserve special mention, Raj i Peri by Robert Schumann and Krzysztof Penderecki’s St Luke Passion. He was a great champion of modern music, especially by Polish composers. His television programmes were particularly popular in this respect.
He wrote a number of books which our musical director says are wonderful. Sadly, a quick search through Amazon and Bookfinder.com would suggest that they are currently unavailable and even if you find them, they have not been translated into English (unless he wrote ‘Bistatic Radar Polarimetry – Theory & Principles!). Perhaps some ‘out of print’ translations are available through libraries.
Reading through other articles, I failed to find much more. What there is tells of a very warm, energetic and multi-talented man. A much loved teacher and champion of causes. A broadcaster and author, composer, conductor and politically active Music Union representative. As the Polish Music Centre puts it “A Renaissance figure”.
He wrote his poignant Canzona di Barocca in 1983 and it was our privilege to give its first Sheffield performance at the Broomhill festival on June 15th.
D
Afterthought. Looking through the list of Czyz’s publications, I was reminded of the Polish visitor who went to have his eyes checked at SpecSavers. The optometrist indicated the penultimate row on the reading chart c z w l b p d j z “Can you read that?” she asked. “Of course I can” he replied “He’s my uncle”.
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Apologies to non-orchestra members visiting the blog, for whom this post is totally irrelevant!
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Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra Newsletter |
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Concert season 2008/2009 – dates for your diary. Please note the change of date: the Christmas concert is now on Satuday, not Sunday.
= Saturday 8th November, Victoria Hall, Sheffield.
Verdi – “Nabucco” Overture
Respighi – Ancient Airs and Dances Suite II
Berlioz – “Harold in Italy” Soloist: Robin Ireland
= Saturday 13 December, Christmas family afternoon concert. St Andrew’s Church, Psalter Lane.
= Saturday 21st March, Victoria Hall, Sheffield.
= Saturday 13th June, Broomhill Festival at St Mark’s Church.
Programme to be confirmed. Watch this space like a hawk.
Subs
Thank you if you have already paid your sub. If you haven’t, it would be very helpful if you would give it to Natalie as soon as possible (£25 membership, £10 concessions, £5 students).
Visitors to the this blog may be interested in a performance of Mozarts Requiem (by The Escafeld Chorale and the SPO), to be performed in Sheffield on April 12th. Full details can be found on Escafeld’s website : http://www.escafeldchorale.org.uk/.
This is our second association with Escafeld. Ewa will be conducting the Requiem and Escafeld’s musical director, Peter Dutton, will start the concert off with 2 ‘a capella’ (whoops! they were not a capella, but were very nice anyway) pieces.
The history of the Requiem is every bit as devious and fascinating as the totally mythological account in ‘Amadeus’. Wiki gives a reasonable introduction to this extraordinary work http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem_(Mozart). I have to admit that some of my favourite bits seem to be those written by Sussmayr, but I suppose Mozart gave him a flying start (for example, the first 8 bars of the Lacrimosa, widely accepted to be the last music Mozart ever wrote).
Performing this work poses special challenges to an amateur orchestra, not least being the orchestration itself. The horns, oboes and flutes get a day off, but not the 3 trombones (alto, tenor and bass), who cop it for a hair raising solo in the Tuba Mirum. And where do you find 2 basset horns? Our clarinet duo were most insistent that we provide them, and they duly arrived this week. Then the orchestra will have to balance with the choir and tune in with the organ.
We confidently expect all these problems to be solved and look forward to a memorable performance, once again in St John’s Church, Ranmoor.
Easter greetings to all.
David.
PS. Another great audience. Thanks to all for coming. See you at the Broomhill festival.
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This blog now has nigh on 3000 hits. The SPO wishes all our visitors a very happy Christmas and New Year. Please feel free to comment on our posts. 3000 hits and 4 comments is a poor ratio!
The Christmas concert went very well. Special thanks to Martin Lightowler who compered the programme with panache and good humour. Ewa had better look to her laurels as we seem to have found a new musical director, aged 7 (ish)!
Rehearsals for the Tchaikowsky 4 and Rachmaninov piano concerto 2 start on Tuesday 8th Jan at the Victoria Hall. This is our venue for a trial period in January and all the rehearsals will be held there. The committee appreciates that parking is tricky, especially for those with large instruments, but the venue has lots of plus points too; most notably an excellent acoustic.
Once again, new string players are welcome to come along and see if this is the right orchestra for you. We are friendly, work hard and are optimistic. It is generally agreed that the orchestra is going through an exciting phase in its development.
Seasons greetings to everyone.
TM
