Below you will find a list of composer notes, as opposed to programme notes, which I have written for distribution to members of our group. The lectures are given by Matthew Taylor and he is the point of focus, not these notes. Over the years I have known him he has become one of the most articulate and amusing lecturers and raconteurs. In addition we are fortunate to have a man who can sit at the piano and demonstrate the workings of the orchestra and whose knowledge is seemingly unlimited. My notes came about after one member, who had arrived late anyway, complained we did not know enough about the composer’s life. I tackled this by reproducing some programme notes I had but I soon found that they were inadequate. They often contained little about the background of the composer and were often just like a satnav direction and a distraction from listening to the music when it is being played. I have tried to write the notes in my own style which I hope readers will find informative and at times amusing. If not, forgive my ramblings. They are not compulsory. I do however, for what it is worth, lay claim to my copyright ©
Lionel J Lewis
- Bruckner
- Title BEETHOVEN – BACK HOME – NOV 2021 – MARCH 2022
- Glazunov (Around 1900)
- Strauss, Richard
- Enescu
- Busoni
- Schoenberg
- Mozart Mixtures – Part 1 (The Salzburg Years)
- Mozart Mixtures – Part 2 – The Vienna Years
- New Dvorak Series
- Nicolai – (The Bard Comes To Blackheath)
- Carl Maria von Weber (The Bard Comes To Blackheath)
- Arne, Thomas (The Bard Comes To Blackheath)
- Malcolm Arnold (from Walton and his Friends)
- Beethoven Chamber Music – Bonn to Heilingenstadt
- Beethoven Chamber Music – Middle Period
- Beethoven Chamber Music – The late Period
- Les Six (from Music Deco)
- Roussel (from Music Deco)
- Kodaly (from Music Deco)
- Alban Berg
- Haydn (The Esterhazy Years)
- Weinberg (aka Vainberg)
- Shostakovich Part 1 (Beginning to the Soviet Artist’s Reply)
- Shostakovich (1936 – Death of Stalin)
- Shostakovich – Part 3 (After Stalin)
- Copland
- Schumann (Schubert/Schumann Face to Face)
- Vivaldi (from Back to Baroque)
- Corelli (from Back to Baroque)
- Telemann (Back to Baroque)
- J. S. Bach (1) and (2)
- Michael Haydn
- Mahler – Backround and Beginnings (1)
- Mahler – The Wayfaring Years (2)
- Mahler – The Vienna Years (3)
- Mahler – The Final Years (4)
- Mahler – His Conversion to Catholocism (5)
- Russian Nationalists – Glinka (1)
- Balakirev (The Russian Nationalists) – (2)
- Borodin – (The Russian Nationalists) (3)
- Matthew Taylor Himself
- Rimsky Korsakov (The Russian Nationalists) (4)
- Cesar Cui – The Russian Nationalists (5)
- Mussorgsky – Russian Nationalists (6)
- Sibelius Part 1 – Finland Awakes (Sibelius and Nielsen)
- Sibelius (Part 2) Into The Twentieth Century
- Sibelius – Part 3 (from 1910) (Sibelius and Nielsen)
- Carl Nielsen (Sibelius and Nielsen)
- Haydn In London and After
- Lully, Jean Baptiste
- Rameau (Orchestral Splendours)
- Monteverdi (Orchestral Splendours)
- Handel (from Orchestral Splendours series)
- Rachmaninov (from 20th Century Concertos)
- Elgar (from 20th Century Concertos)
- Bartok (from 20th Century Concertos)
- Poulenc (from 20 Century Concertos)
- Vaughan Williams (from 20th Century Concerto)
- Walton (from 20th Century Concertos)
- Arthur Bliss
- Constant Lambert
- Ravel (20th Century Concerto Series)
- Gershwin (20th Century Concerto Series)
- Tchaikovsky
- Brahms (from Romantic Chamber Music
- Ries – Hummel – Weber (The Lost Beethoven Generation)
- Georges Onslow (the French Beethoven)
- Stravinsky (1) Beginnings to the Rite of Spring
- Stravinsky (2) The Neoclassical and the 1920’s
- Stravinsky (3) The 1930’s
- Stravinsky (4) The American Years
- Prokofiev (1)
- Prokofiev (2)
- Prokofiev (3)
- Prokofiev (4)
- Smetana – (Czech Music Series)
- Dvorak – (Czech Music Series)
- Suk – (Czech Music Series)
- Janacek – Czech Music Series
- Martinu – (Czech Music Series)
- Berlioz – A Life (1)
- Berlioz – A Life (2)
- Berlioz – A Life (3)
- History of the String Quartet – Haydn
- History of the String Quartet (2) Mozart: The “Haydn” Quartets
- History of the String Quarter – BEETHOVEN (1)
- History of the String Quartet – Beethoven (2)
- The History of the String Quartet – BEETHOVEN (3)
- History of the String Quartet – Schubert
- Benjamin Britten (1) – Introduction – Getting To Know Him
- Benjamin Britten (2) – A Boy Was Born
- Benjamin Britten (3) – Young Apollo
- Benjamin Britten (4) – Never Had It So Good
- Benjamin Britten (5) – The Last Two Decades
- La Belle Epoque (6) – Debussy
- La Belle Epoque (5) – Fauré
- La Belle Epoque (4) – D’Indy
- La Belle Epoque (3) – Saint Saëns
- La Belle Epoque (2) – Franck
- La Belle Epoque (1) – Gounod
- ELGAR – VIOLIN SONATA
- BARTOK – THE WOODEN PRINCE
- CHARLES IVES – SYMPHONY NO 4
- DELIUS – VIOLIN CONCERTO
- Holst – The Planet Suite