FRMS BULLETIN Autumn 2001 No. 135 Ed i tor: CONTENTS Ar thur Baker All Ed i to rial copy to him at: page page 4 Ramsdale Road, EDITORIAL Bramhall, Stock port, Cheshire SK7 2QA Respighi 2 Dame Janet Baker 25 Tel: 0161 440 8746 So ci ety mem ber ship 2 The Coull quartet 25 E-mail: [email protected] Ri val muses 26 NEWS A Dutch mis cel lany 26 Asst. Ed i tor: Reg Wil liamson (see back page for address). Pub lic li a bil ity policy 3 BOOK REVIEWS Ed i to rial dead lines: Fungus that eats CDs 3 Spring is sue - 31st De cember Mu sic with out a licence 4 Lord Berners: last ec cen tric 27 Autumn issue - 30th June Dig i tal tuner of fer 4 Mar keting Man ager: Death of Jim Grant ham 5 CD REVIEWS Cathy Con nolly (see back Searching on the Web 5 page). Ad ver tise ments are Respighi -Metamorphoseon 28 available from £35.00, details Schu bert -Pi ano masterworks28 from the Marketin g Man ager. LETTERS Marshall Hall - Symphony 29 Har old Craxton - Works 30 Copies are distributed to all So ci eties and pro gram ming 6 Federation affiliates with Rail ways in mu sic 6 THE REGIONS additional copies through Moeran and rail ways 7 society secretaries. Estimated VideoLogic dig i tal tuner 7 East Mid lands 31 readership is well over 10,000. Sus sex Re gion 31 Individual Subscriptions are York shire Re gion 32 available at £6.80 for four FEATURES issues. Direct orders and THE SOCIETIES subscriptions for the Bulletin Respighi: his life 8 should be sent to the FRMS Respighi: his works 9 Bognor Regis 33 Treasurer (see back page). Respighi: recom. re cord ings 11 Car diff 33 The cover pic ture is of the Mu sic – Amus ing say ings 12 Cirencester 33 millennium Sta dium, Car diff, Railways in Music 13 Eastbourne 34 per mission of the Wales Tour- De scrip tive terms 18 Kings Lynn 34 ist Board. Vi enna – waltz craze 18 Loughborough 35 His tor i cal con cepts 20 Worces ter 35 Type set by the ed i tor us ing Ri val muses 21 Corel Ventura. CROSSWORD Please Note: No ma te rial con- STRATFORD tent of this mag azine may be Cross word 36 re pro duced else where with out Pen guin Guide 23 per mis sion from the pub lish - Wil liam Alwyn 24 FRMS OFFICERS ers, Fed er a tion of Re corded Life in the Or ches tra 24 Mu sic So ci eties Ltd. Amazing scope & vari ety 25 Of fi cers, Board and Printed by Maxiprint, de sign ers Com mit tees 37 and col our print ers, Visit the FRMS Website: Kettlestring Lane, Clifton Moor, York YO30 4XF www.musicweb.uk.net/frms/in dex.htm ISSN 09628150 FRMS 1 EDITORIAL Editorial Respighi I well re mem ber my con sid er able mis giv ings How ever at the same time other So ci eties are when I bought my first disc of a piece by Respighi pros per ing and a few even have wait ing lists. (Pines of Rome-what else?). My own Soci ety (Bramhall) has had a mem- From the crit i cal reviews I had read about the bership of around 35 members for many years mu sic of Respighi I had expecte d the music to be and although we had from time to time tried to trite and vul gar. In stead I heard won der fully evo ca- increase numbers we had not felt too bad when tive music, well writ ten and orches trated which we failed to in crease the mem ber ship pro vided ended in an ex cit ing and dra matic mode. that at least we managed to recrui t suffi - Even the in famous re cord ing of a real ciently to main tain the size of the so ci ety. night ingale sing ing failed to shock my in - How ever a few months ago the Commit - sen si tive ears - in stead it added just a lit tle tee faced up to the fact that we had lost atmo sphere at the right place. sev eral members and that some oth ers Since then, I have heard a lot of were too ill to at tend – un less we did Respighi’s mu sic, all of which I have en- something we would have a real crisis. joyed, although as with many compos ers The trea surer cal cu lated the fi nan cial some of his works only reveal their se crets loss of each member lost (an nual fee, at ten - af ter sev eral listenings. His music keeps dance fee & profit from re fresh ments); this ap pear ing at programmes pre sented at my Re corded was quite substan tial and jointly with the secre tary Mu sic So ci ety and is in vari ably well re ceived. pro posed that we should spend money and effort I re main puz zled that so many crit ics seem to be an - in an at tempt to in crease member ship. This was tago nis tic or con de scend ing to his mu sic. I am partic u - agreed and we under took a se ries of actions — we larly annoyed at such com ments as Toscanini wasting placed adver tise ments in two lo cal Parish mag a- his tal ents on such mu sic and ex cus ing it as only be ing zines and in the Borough Coun cil events maga zine, due to his per sonal friendship to the composer. This we placed post ers in local librar ies etc. We also in- type of thing co mes from critics who ap plaud to the sky creased the num ber of so cial events in an at tempt music of a formless or wishy washy nature which will to make the So ci ety more at trac tive. never be at trac tive to the av er age mu sic lover. Up to now we have re cruited six new mem - In this edi tion of the Bul le tin we fea ture a se ries bers and are back to strength. However we shall of arti cles which hope fully will facil i tate the un der - con tinue to try to re cruit and aim if pos si ble to stand ing and ap pre ci a tion of this of ten un der es ti - in crease our mem ber ship. mated composer. We are grateful to An thony Barker Not only R. M. Soci eties but al most ev ery who is on the FRMS list of present ers (and whose type of so ciety are complain ing about the dif fi- sub jects in clude Respghi) and to Char lie Niven who culty of re cruit ing mem bers — es pe cially young is sec re tary of the Respighi So ci ety for their ar ti cles. ones. There is no doubt that many youn ger peo - I hope they will help to in crease the enjoyment of ple have more stress at work and more dis trac- this skilled, tune ful and inter est ing com poser. tions than ever be fore. How ever, the fast est grow ing part of the pop u lation is that of re tired So ci ety Mem ber ship peo ple. These are of ten the peo ple with most Proba bly the saddest thing about attend ing Com- time on their hands and are look ing for in ter est - mit tee meet ings of the FRMS is that at nearly ev ery ing ways of pass ing their time. meeting it is an nounced that an other so ciety has I ap peal to all Soci eties to con sider their own folded. The ex pla na tion is nearly al ways the same. member ship po si tion — and if it is not good Youn ger peo ple are not joining and older ones are be- don’t just re sign your self to it but do some thing! com ing de crepit or dy ing; then mem ber ship gets In many Soci eties this should be the most im por - smaller until the num ber is too small to be vi able. In tant thing to do this year. I would welcome let- several cases the Soci ety has built up not in consid er- ters for the Bul le tin re count ing their ex pe ri ences able funds, so short age of money is not the problem. and sug gest ing ways to increase member ship. Arthur Baker. 2 FRMS NEWS The Federation Public Liability Policy — Some Ques tions and An swers. n these litigation days, it has become essential for tice must be given with out un rea son able de lay. Societies to protect themselves in case they The po lice must be in formed where ap pro pri ate. Ishould be sued for large sums in the event of any The usual con di tions as to mini mising losses and accident occurring at any of their meetings or events. co-oper at ing with the in surers and suchlike apply. Some Affiliates have been seeking information about If a claim or pos si ble claim arises seek guid ance the Federation’s Public Liability Policy.