News In this issue ... Page Page Address for Communications 2 The Firs – One Year On 27 Keep in touch 2 Elgar Works 29 Letter from the Chairman 2 1,000 Miles up the Amazon 33 From the Editor 5 The Apostles in Zûrich 35 Tributes to Donald Hunt 6 Richard Lewis’s Gerontius 37 2019 Annual General Meeting Obituaries 39 and Nominations for Council 14 Letters to the Editor 43 Elgar Society Medal presented to St. Wulstan’s Christmas Card 44 Alexander Walker 16 Branch Reports 46 Elgar Day at the Three Choirs 20 Branch Events 58 Membership Matters 24 Dates for your Diary 62 Delius Society 25 Crossword 70 No. 66 – December 2018 Address for Communications Contributions for the April 2019 edition of the Elgar Society News should be e–mailed, preferably as Word documents, to the Editor: Peter James: [email protected] Full contact details can be found on the back cover. The latest date for submissions for the April 2019 issue is 25 February 2019. Keep in Touch Remember: you can keep up to date with the latest Elgarian news online at Facebook: www.facebook.com Twitter: www.twitter.com London Branch Account: https://twitter.com/ElgarLondon YouTube: www.youtube.com or, search for ‘Elgar’ or ‘Elgar Society’ or ‘Elgar Birthplace’. Letter from the Chairman Dear Friends, It has been a contemplative time since the last edition of the News, not least because of the deaths of two fine friends of the Society and tremendous Elgar enthusiasts. Donald Hunt, of course, received national recognition for his lifetime in music, and he is praised elsewhere on these pages in fitting fashion by those who knew him better than I did. He and I had, however, invariably cheery conversations when we met and I was always struck by his enthusiasm and erudition (he was a fine editor for the Elgar Complete Edition), both of which qualities 2 Elgar Society News Letter from the Chairman he brought to his performances. I always enjoyed his musical contributions to the Birthday weekend and particularly treasure his concert/dedication service in St George’s Church, performing works Elgar composed for that place and dedicating the commemorative plaque there. In a much more self–effacing way, Paul Bassett, who died in September following a long illness, was a tremendous asset to the Society. He served on Council for many years and took up the challenge of founding and chairing the Scottish Branch for almost twenty years. Kindly, courteous and devoted to the Branch almost to a fault, Paul would welcome me when I spoke annually to the Scottish Branch amid Edinburgh’s January magnificence, and my times there were some of the happiest of my Chairmanship. I was privileged on 14 October to take part in a Scottish Branch meeting devoted to honouring Paul. A delayed train made me miss the fine violin and piano recital that made up the first half, but we were then treated to an outstanding presentation by Tom Kelly, the present Branch Chairman. He found the words, pictures and music to evoke Paul’s enthusiasm, kindness, persistence and love of Elgar, all of which made up his great contribution to the Society and the other varied causes he espoused. It was a privilege to be there and that visit meant I had to ask one of our Vice–Presidents, Andrew Neill, to take my place in presenting Alexander Walker at the Cadogan Hall in London with the Society’s medal for his championing of Elgar’s works (often premières in the concert venues) in Poland, Belarus, Russia, Finland, Moldova and Romania. I thank Andrew for so kindly finding the time to do so. The soloist in the Elgar Violin Concerto was Alda Dizdari, who gained much publicity in launching prior to the concert her book Kiss Me Again: A Memoir of Elgar in Unusual Places. I read it on my Scottish trip and a review will appear in the Journal ere long. The release of a SOMM recording closes another chapter in the Elgar Society’s story. In my talk to June’s AGM, I anticipated the release of SOMM’s double CD that featured Elgar’s songs for orchestra (Kathryn Rudge, Henk Neven, the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Barry Wordsworth) and Elgar’s songs for soprano and piano with the soprano Nathalie de Montmollin accompanied by Barry Collett. Both CDs (reviewed in the current Journal) feature No. 66 – December 2018 3 Letter from the Chairman first recordings and mark the last of the recording programme agreed years ago when I demonstrated gaps in the discography. We have worked with a number of record companies and artists, but our relationship with Siva Oke’s SOMM Recordings has consistently found ways to record and release works lost for some time or never previously recorded. Barry Collett, of course, has been in the vanguard of bringing unknown Elgar to the general public, so it is fitting that his CD marks the end of his recording career as an executant, leaving a fine legacy that so richly deserved his Society medal some years back. He also steps back from his involvement with Elgar in Performance after many years’ service, and I thank him for his patient (and sometimes otherwise!) advice to the rest of us on the EiP group, whose number Peter Newble is joining, I am pleased to say. In this spirit of valediction to Barry and to the fine recordings we have issued, it is fitting to add my own news, which is that I shall not be standing for Chairmanship of the Society at the next AGM, and a notice advertising for my successor is elsewhere in this edition. The simple reason for this is that I believe I have accomplished everything I wanted to achieve for the Society and it is time to hand over to somebody else to take the Society further forward. With the stability engendered across nearly all aspects of the Society, and with so many good people in place, this is the appropriate time to hand over the reins to a new pair of hands. I hope I shall also be permitted to remain part of EiP, although I shall not be serving on Council, in order to give my successor space to develop her or his ideas. I shall continue to chair the Elgar Complete Edition and am always available to help Meinhard Saremba with the Journal when he asks. With best wishes to you all 4 Elgar Society News From the Editor This edition of the News is dominated by tributes to that distinguished Elgarian Donald Hunt, who sadly died in August at the age of 88. Among the contributors, Dr Simon Lindley’s name will be especially familiar to Yorkshire members. He was Donald’s successor as Organist at Leeds Parish Church (now Leeds Minster), worked with him in the Halifax Choral Society in the 1970s and 80s, and has remained a friend of the Hunt family. If you read the News from the front working towards the back, you will already have learned that our Chairman, Steven Halls, is to resign at the AGM next year. The formal invitation to submit nominations for his successor is on page 14 – and so too is the request for nominations for Helen Whittaker’s successor as Hon. Treasurer. As if that weren’t enough change, our Hon. Membership Secretary, David Young, also announces his departure on page 24. There is no formal process to appoint his successor, as the Membership Secretary is not a member of Council – a suitable volunteer just needs to step forward. Our thanks and best wishes go to all three. Apologies are in order for the fact that August’s edition of the News appeared with black and white photos. Our printers held up their hands and confessed to human error, assuring us that full colour is to be restored from now on. Following Pietro’s appeal in the August News for help with the crossword, I’m delighted to welcome two new compilers. Jolly Swagman’s first puzzle can be found in this issue, while Nebuchadnezzar will be making his debut in April. Finally, it’s well known that Elgar pretended to be ignorant on matters of musical theory. In Elgar as I Knew Him, W.H. Reed relates how when he approached Elgar for lessons in harmony and counterpoint the reaction was, ‘My dear boy, I don’t know anything about those things’. Whatever we may think of Elgar’s affectation, getting to grips with music’s technical jargon can certainly be a challenge. Now an academic has recognised the difficulty. Professor Matthew Bribitzer–Stull of the University of Minnesota, writing in the programme booklet for Covent Garden’s Ring cycle this autumn, has come up with a succinct phrase to describe an interval – ‘a unit of sonic space’. No doubt Elgar would have been grateful for the elucidation. Peter James No. 66 – December 2018 5 Tributes to Donald Hunt Elgarian, Conductor, Choirmaster, Composer, Consummate Musician Dr Donald Hunt wore many hats and, as an extraordinarily accomplished all–round musician, achieved an immense amount during the course of a long and fulfilling career. Many of his choral performances were committed to LP and CD, though it’s a real sadness that he was overlooked by recording companies in terms of orchestral endeavour. It is generally accepted that he was one of the very last articled pupils under the traditional system by which cathedral organists emerged from a period of apprenticeship as fully–fledged musicians in their early or mid–20s having often begun cathedral work as a teenager.