RAMSBOTTOM RECORDED MUSIC SOCIETY
RAMSBOTTOM Recorded Music Society welcomed general secretary Richard W Hall as presenter at the meeting held on October 18, with a programme entitled ‘Behold, the sea...’.
These are the words with which Vaughan Williams’s ‘A Sea Symphony’ begins and Richard used this dramatic opening to launch us on our evening’s musical voyage.
In the course of some 15 items, Richard showed us the sea in all its many varying moods, not forgetting the dark and mysterious world beneath the surface.
He also devised a highly effective narrative which linked the pieces of music together in a most entertaining way.
The composers represented included Haydn, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stanford and Britten.
We also sailed on board ‘H M S Pinafore’ with Sullivan, visited ‘Fingal’s Cave’ with Mendelssohn and listened to the Band of H M Royal Marines playing ‘Old Comrades’.
Film music by Korngold (‘The Sea Hawk’) and Herrmann (‘Beneath the 12-Mile Reef’) provided encounters with pirates and the underwater world respectively.
Unfamiliar pieces by the Finnish composer Uuno Klami and the Belgian Paul Gilson nevertheless proved very enjoyable, as did the cantata ‘Calm Sea and Prosperous Journey’ by Beethoven.
Richard included some superb classic performances in his programme and his final two items exemplified this to perfection and set the seal on an outstanding evening’s entertainment.
After diving for oysters with Jussi Bjorling and Robert Merrill in the Duet from Act 1 of Bizet’s opera ‘The Pearl Fishers’, we took to the waters for the last time with Dame Janet Baker in ‘The Swimmer’, the final song in Elgar’s song cycle ‘Sea Pictures’ in the unsurpassed recording conducted by Sir John Barbirolli.
The next meeting of the society will be held on Thursday, November 1 and will be an ‘Anniversaries Evening’ presented by members of the committee.
For further details please contact Richard W Hall, telephone Ramsbottom 01706 823490 or e-mail r.w.hall45@ hotmail.co.uk or follow us on Facebook.
New members are most welcome.