Presentations for Colleges, Universities, Clubs etc. David Owen Norris MA (Oxon.) FSA FRAM FRCO Professor of Musical Performance, University of Southampton (Britain’s top research establishment for music)

Performance: Masterclasses for singers, and chamber musicians 1: English Song 2: Cracking the Codes – the true meaning of Marks of Expression 3: Piano Masterclasses

Lecture-recitals of general interest to musicians and non-specialists alike 4: Surprise or Satisfy – A Theory of Performance 5: What’s the Point of Classical Music? 6: Early Music in the 80s – an eye-witness account

Christmas Special 7. The Oxford Book of Carols Unwrapped

Masterclasses 1: English Song David Owen Norris (‘quite possibly the most interesting in the world.’ Globe & Mail, Toronto) began his career by winning the accompanists’ prize at Leeds and accompanying the great song recitalists Sir Peter Pears and Dame . His vocal discography reflects his long-term collaborations with & Sir John Tomlinson. With David Wilson-Johnson he has recorded Somervell, Quilter and Finzi; with Mark Wilde he has recorded his own song-cycles, Think only this and Tomorrow nor Yesterday, a double-disc of songs by Sir (at Elgar’s own Broadwood piano), song-cycles by , and Sir Hubert Parry’s remarkable settings of Shakespeare sonnets. Other recent vocal recordings include the complete songs of Sir Arthur Sullivan and of Sullivan’s teacher, Sir William Sterndale Bennett, and also the little-known Tennyson settings by Edward Lear – the poet’s own favourites. Owen Norris brings an unparalleled insight to the whole repertoire of English Song, and to the art of performance itself. He has given singing masterclasses at all England’s Conservatoires, and was Chairman of the Steans Institute for Singers at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago from 1990 to 1996. He is currently Visiting Professor at the Royal Northern College of Music.

2: Cracking the Codes David Owen Norris plays early pianofortes as well as modern instruments. An important part of his work on nineteenth-century music has been to rediscover forgotten interpretations of Marks of Expression, which were used to specify rubato as well as dynamics. His new recordings of 1820s virtuoso re-compositions of Mozart concertos and of Mendelssohn’s complete Songs without Words demonstrate the point. A fascinating one-hour presentation of the topic with examples at the piano can be supplemented by a masterclass dealing with any aspect of nineteenth- century music, but in particular Beethoven & Mendelssohn. Chamber music as well as works for solo piano can be included in the class, using either early or modern instruments, or both – the principles of rubato remain the same. See Appendix for reviews of recent fortepiano CDs that embody this work.

3: Piano Masterclasses As the reviews mentioned above confirm, David Owen Norris is a remarkable pianist, with four appearances in the BBC Proms, concert tours of Europe, Australia, and North America, including performances at Sydney Opera House, Kennedy Centre, Lincoln Centre, Ravinia Festival Chicago, South Bank Centre, Wigmore Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Three Choirs Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Brighton Festival, Edinburgh Festival etc. and a discography of 60 commercial CDs. He was appointed the very first Gilmore Artist in 1991, the outcome of a world-wide secret search. His lively mind and wide experience of the musical world make him a sought-after teacher. His masterclasses are not just the passing-on of technical and musical insights to the student, but public enquiries into the very nature of music, relished by participants and audience alike. His masterclasses for BBC Radio 3 and for Gresham College are available on the internet. His pianistic pedigree combines the schools of Tobias Matthay & Alfred Cortot – he studied with Alexander Kelly in London and Yvonne Lefebure in Paris. He has served on juries of international piano competitions in Helsinki, Calgary & Montreal, and frequently reviews piano records for BBC Radio 3.

General Presentations David Owen Norris is uniquely experienced in making musical ideas accessible to the non-specialist, as his much-repeated Radio 4 Playlist series and his six-season BBC2 Chord of the Week attest. During his time as Gresham Professor of Music his lectures drew audiences of every age and background. He is currently working on a book, A Personal History of Music in Eighteen Chords.

4. Surprise or Satisfy - a Theory of Performance. The key to an audience’s attention is to fulfil or frustrate its expectations. How can we arouse expectation, and how do we decide what to do with it, once aroused? This theory of performance was set out in 1752 by Charles Avison, somewhat in the elliptical manner of Fermat’s Last Theorem. David Owen Norris fleshes it out with examples, including the blind-folded cellist and an occasion when Sir Peter Pears sang Eugene Onegin.

5: What’s the Point of Classical Music? This presentation has fascinated audiences from the South Bank to Vancouver, and has been featured in Radio 4’s Something Understood. Varying in length from a crowded hour to an all-day enquiry (at the Universities of Oxford and Bristol, for instance), it works out what Classical Music actually is, and explains how aspects of it affect parts of the human mind and body that no other art can reach. Starting from a simple but unplayable rhythm by Debussy, it studies Beethoven’s left foot as a key to the meaning of his mighty Fifth Symphony, and includes literally unforgettable explanations of counterpoint and modulation.

6: Early Music in the 80s – an eye-witness account David Owen Norris’s first important television programme was a ninety-minute investigation into the aesthetics of the 1980s explosion of ‘early music’ CDs. ‘The Real Thing? – Questions of Authenticity’ was shown just once in 1991, and hailed by the Daily Telegraph as ‘the most probing and literate programme about music for many years’. Copyright costs prevent it from ever being broadcast again, but it can be viewed for purposes of study. Its performers and interviewees include Pierre Boulez, Alfred Brendel, Reinhard Goebel, Ton Koopman, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Raymond Leppard and Sir Roger Scruton. Besides its intrinsic interest, the programme raises troubling questions about aesthetic fashions. A two- hour slot gives time to show the film and for David Owen Norris to take questions.

Christmas Special 7. The Oxford Book of Carols Unwrapped David Owen Norris explores this remarkable collection, including rarely-heard works by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst and A.A. Milne. Come and Sing! – Bring the book if you have it. (Copies provided if you haven’t.)

Appendix Reviews of recent fortepiano CDs (Autumn 2019):

An unmitigated triumph .... required listening. David Threasher Gramophone

A fascinating CD, admirable throughout. Susan Miron ArtsFuse

Disarming freshness, agility and intelligence ... wonderfully idiomatic. Andrew Achenbach Gramophone

My great expectations have been completely met! Maximilian Burgdörfer MusicWeb International

The key figure in the production of this CD is the pianist and musicologist David Owen Norris. His musicianship and knowledge of the period ensures an authoritative approach throughout. This is a disc that can be confidently recommended. Alistair MacDonald British Music Society

This work [the finale of Mozart’s last Symphony] is tricky enough – especially in the breathtaking counterpoint of the finale – when played as a piano duet. Performing it with only two hands, in an arrangement that preserves nearly every polyphonic strand, is a brilliant tour de force, with the invaluable bonus of the finale’s second repeat being taken, heightening the effect of the work’s cathartic coda. David Threasher Gramophone