Writing

  Nesi Hensu  The Zagrebacka Mumija lies in a small dedicated room at the back of the Archeological museum in Zagreb.  The museum is set back from the road, with a delightful garden in front where I love to sit…

Boucher and La Marseillaise Alexandre-Jean Boucher (1770-1861) was born and died in Paris. His father was a member of Louis XV’s  Mousquetaires Gris A pupil or Navoigille ainé, and Gaviniés, he performed at court at the age of eight years…

  Turbulent Quartets   Pre-Concert Talk-Wilton’s Music Hall-13th December 2009 Schubert’s friend Eduard Bauernfeld noted: “Schubert has the right blend of the ideal and the real; for him, the world is beautiful.” (3 March 1826, in Franz Schubert, Music and…

Bach-Beethoven-Mendelssohn-David Matthews Extract from pre-concert talk given at Wilton’s Music Hall, Spring 2009  The unifying figure behind all of the composers that we are playing today is, of course, Johann Sebastian Bach.  All three of them arranged Bach’s music, and…

 Click on Paganini and Eliasson  Preparations for Paganini’s Arrival in London-1831 (10-12-09) “For I have learned To look on nature, not as in the hour Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes The still sad music of humanity, Not harsh nor…

  Discussion continues within the Quartet as to where Schubert’s crazy late violin writing comes from. Imagine him handing the last movement of the G major Quartet to his violinist brother Ferdinand. One supposes that the initial reaction would have…

Opening the Salon Door Text of Talk given at SOUNDBOX,RAM 2008 It is perhaps appropriate that we discuss the question of the Salon here, in the surroundings of a Museum. It is a word that we have come to use…

Elgar –  A minor Etude Characteristique 1882 Peter Sheppard Skaerved – Violin (Stradivari 1698  ‘Joachim’) Bow – Tubbs (given to Elgar) Elgar Meets Heifetz On the 5th May 1920, George Bernard Shaw penned his by now legendary note to the…

  A side look at Beethoven 9. Talk given as part of the ‘Barbirolli Lecture’ series at the Royal Academy of Music. 2008 On the 21st January 1825, the great double-bassist Domenico Dragonettti wrote to the Philharmonic Society:   “I…

‘The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters’ (Pre-Concert Talk.Given at Wilton’s Music Hall January 4th 2009)     Two versions of Telemann’s signature   The very first time that I performed the cycle of solo works by Bach, was in a medieval church in…