Guest Blog: Frances Wilson on The Power of the Programme

In a guest article for the Music Haven Blog, our friend Frances Wilson from the Cross Eyed Pianist Blog writes on how a sensitive concert programme can make or break the premiere of a contemporary piece of music.

Recently I attended two concerts, one in London at St John’s Smith Square and the other in Brighton as part of the Fringe Festival, which included world premieres of new works for piano. The new works were interspersed with more familiar repertoire which made interesting and witty connections between old and new, as well as offering a varied and contrasting listening experience. It struck me that this was an intelligent, accessible and enjoyable way of programming new music by giving audiences an opportunity to experience it without hitting them over the head with it, as is sometimes the effect if one attends a concert comprised entirely from brand new music. It was refreshing to come across these programmes in which familiar works were placed alongside the new and not-so-familiar, for such juxtapositions can shine a new light on the old and highlight previously undiscovered connections between works and composers.

Q&A With James Francis Brown on Amateur Music Making Part 2

In a two-part blog Robert Edgar, questions conductor Tom Hammond and composer James Francis Brown about the world of amateur music-making.

Part Two

James Francis Brown talks about amateur music making from the point of view of the composer. He has written numerous works, at varying levels of difficulty, for both professional and amateur ensembles.

Comments Fixed

Apologies to all our readers who may have been trying to post comments to the blog. There were a couple of gremlins which we have found and banished, hopefully for good.

Q&A: Tom Hammond on Amateur Music Making Part 1

In a two-part blog Rob Edgar, questions conductor Tom Hammond and composer James Francis Brown about the world of amateur music-making.

Part 1
Tom Hammond airs his views – informed by a wealth of experience conducting professional and amateur both nationally and across the globe.

James Francis Brown - Clarinet Concerto Video

James Francis Brown is featured in a new video by the Redhill Sinfonia ahead of their performance of his Clarinet Concerto on the 4th July 2015.

More information here.

Our Musical Heritage in London

Alan Mills writes about the treasure trove that is the British Library, and the benefits it bestows on all of us; from the student, to the professor, to the man on the street.

Dr. Johnson's famous assertion that, when someone is 'tired of London', they are also 'tired of life' is just as debatable today as it probably was in the 18th century. Nevertheless, there's no doubt that being in London gives one access to a whole range of musical experiences that smaller centres can seldom match. Apart from the endlessly varied and continuous flow of concerts presenting all kinds of music, the good, the bad, and the ugly - plus shops retailing a striking range of sheet music and CDs (though maybe not quite so impressive as formerly) - there is also, thankfully, the British Library, sandwiched for fifteen years now between two mainline railway stations, and sitting back from the busy Euston Road to give it some sense of peace and quiet - though not so far back as to suggest a withdrawal from everyday life.

Historically Informed Composition

On the launch of Music Haven's new publication of a completion of Mozart's oboe concerto, K.293, William Drabkin considers the issues of originality in the process of reconstructing music from the past.

To some extent, I’m here on false pretences. My formal tuition in composition ceased nearly half a century ago and was replaced by training in musicology; at best, I can call composition one of my ‘private passions’. I have maintained a life-long interest in the compositional processes of the great Austrian composers of the late eighteenth and early 19th centuries, and have devoted much time to transcribing and interpreting the sketchbooks of Beethoven. Through my study of Classical-period music, I have come into contact with unfinished works the completion of which I have been unable to resist.