York Recorded Music Society

[Stanley Stewart]

A rare opportunity yesterday (25 June) for an evening meeting of York RMS. Fortuitous because it also followed a particularly humid day although it was pleasantly cool in the Music Room at Dower Court and the outlook from a large central window was sumptuous, the heavy growth of foliage on the trees had a three dimensional appearance as the landscape tapered and it was a pleasure to watch the fading daylight in the dusk.

As this was our penultimate meeting in the 2014/15 season, it was decided not to have a single speaker but to open the proceedings to an a la carte presentation by members. A neat opener with a sequence from the score for Wendy Toye's 1952 half-hour feature The Stranger Left No Card with Alan Badel as the visitor to a small community with sinister intentions, frequently shown on TV in the 60s and 70s and the jaunty score was heard regularly on Family Favourites over many years.

In turn, we also heard some pleasing Gounod, Holst, Grieg and Gershwin. I opted for a couple of tracks with the exquisite voice of Jarmila Novotna as I recently acquired a DVD on the Suprahon label which had a 90mins documentary with lots of archive material and first rate transfers of her operatic roles, including the RCA 1942 recording of Czechoslovakian Songs, titled Songs for Lidice in remembrance of the Nazi reprisals in wiping out a whole community after the assassination of the Gestapo General Heydrich; the accompanist was Jan Masaryk, son of the deposed President of Czechoslovakia. My personal memories were reflected by mid-80s visits to Prague and sitting near St Charles's Bridge over the Vltava, after concerts by Czech Phil and looking at the old town with wonder and upwards to the formidable castle against the skyline.

I was touched by Jarmila Novotna's mantra over many troubled years as an exile.

"Just finding courage to be who we are and love for all the natural and the beautiful.
The more responsible we are towards the truth, the deeper shall be our understanding of life. Then we come to realise that independence and contentment are the essence of a man's well being. Everybody holds the key to happiness. It is only about being unselfish and trying to make other people happy."

[Stanley Stewart]

A genuine feeling of warmth and camaraderie at today's (25 July)YRMS Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Chaired and presented by Gavin, (hmvman), there was a sense of pride and accomplishment as he itemised various developments over six decades. Music always at the centre and the pastoral setting at Dower Court facilitates concentrated listening in a relaxed ambience.

The main focus centred on 1955 - excerpts from new work or performers born in the same year. A sprightly start with the Ritual Dances from Tippett's "The Midsummer Marriage" and, new to me - the joy of discovery - Arthur Bliss, Meditation on a Theme by John Blow, now listed for early acquisition. Births included the arrival of Thomas Hampson and Cheryl Studer in fine fettle with songs by Barber, Copland and Grieg. Affectionate memories for me of their recitals at the Wigmore Hall. Walton was represented by his score for the film version of Richard III and Yo- Yo Ma sampled his musicianship in a later performance, Saint Saens, Cello Concerto. The musical finale was represented by DSCH, Violin Concerto, with the blaze of a turbulent era.

Socialising followed the socialism as our interval ' bun-fight' was really a contrasted and imaginative buffet of delicious delicacies, topped by the ceremonial cutting of the 60th birthday sponge cake. A veritable feast.

We now look forward to the start of the 2015/16 season in September. and our renewal in the spirit of music.

[Stanley Stewart]

A relaxed Saturday evening as I sat, by no means in solemn silence, but fully diverted by the attendant memories stimulated by the glories of our afternoon rendezvous. In his summing-up of our 1955 celebrations, Gavin rightly added the name of Simon Rattle who also bade good-morrow to the world in this year. My mind instantly activated by so many memories of Sir Simon in his CBSO years and a couple of dozen concerts at the RFH or QEH. My first encounter with his platform presence was at Sadler's Wells in 1976, his 21st year. He conducted a performance of The Threepenny Opera with the London Sinfonietta - no penguin suits for them but a dazzling mix of coloured shirts over dark trousers and they were well placed, on stage, on a raised platform. His spirit for quest seems intact as he begins to take his place among the great and the good. Bless 'im for so many years of making music.

Drunk from the experience of our celebrations, I was trilling away, off-tune, to the melody of Simple Gifts and the sheer delight of I bought me a cat, when I felt an urge to continue with a session of transferring off-air videos to DVD and the current favourite is Charles Mackerras. My stack of videos include a performance of Janacek's, The Cunning Little Vixen, a 1997 performance at the Chatelet Theatre Musical de Paris, in Nicholas Hytner's production, directed for TV by Brian Large, with the Orchestre de Paris conducted by Sir Charles. Cast include Thomas Allen as the Forester, Eva Jenis as the Vixen and Hanna Minutillo as the Fox; all singing in Czech with English subtitles. A charming allegorical tale fused with humanity. Bob Crowley designed the brightly coloured but not garish sets and costumes with an endearing sense of rustic simplicity. 100 mins of pleasure, starting with the BBC logo which also indicates the recent intro of the Stereo facility at the top left hand corner of the logo. - Another simple pleasure for this viewer!

[hmvman]

The main focus centred on 1955 - excerpts from new work or performers born in the same year. A sprightly start with the Ritual Dances from Tippett's "The Midsummer Marriage" and, new to me - the joy of discovery - Arthur Bliss, Meditation on a Theme by John Blow, now listed for early acquisition. Births included the arrival of Thomas Hampson and Cheryl Studer in fine fettle with songs by Barber, Copland and Grieg. Affectionate memories for me of their recitals at the Wigmore Hall. Walton was represented by his score for the film version of Richard III and Yo- Yo Ma sampled his musicianship in a later performance, Saint Saens, Cello Concerto. The musical finale was represented by DSCH, Violin Concerto, with the blaze of a turbulent era.

Thanks for your review, Stanley. Just to clarify, the Grieg Songs (2 from "Haugtussa", Op.67) were sung by Anne Sofie Von Otter.

It was a lovely afternoon on Saturday. As you say, there was a genuine feeling of warmth and pleasure. indeed!

[Stanley Stewart]

A most refreshing programme, yesterday, (Oct 17), at the second meeting of the YRMS 2015/16 season, when the theme was Backward Glances, presented by Chairman, Gavin Mist, exploring the work of 20th century composers writing or evoking the musical styles of earlier periods, Ravel, Strauss, Elgar, Respighi, Peter Warlock; a delight to hear a selection from an Eric Coates Suite to close the first half. On the outer drive to Dower Court - breathtaking in its autumnal setting - I teased Gavin re the title of his presentation, Backward Glances, as it prompted me to recall the title of a 50s musical, earlier in the week. Got it a day later - Julian Slade's, Salad Days, with its catchy melody, "...Remind me, to remind you, We said we'd never look back." Of course, it gave me earworm and I couldn't stop humming the damned thing for a couple of days!

[Lat-Literal]

A very interesting thread.

I have only just realised where Dower Court is situated and knew that area well. Memories of a summer in Eden's Court. Laurie Taylor would occasionally sit alongside us in the Deramore etc and I was told Eddie Waring lived on the other side of the campus at The Retreat. I spent longer in Fairfax which was, at a stretch, next door. The last time I visited the university it seemed to be very "corporate" with every student owning a new car and permanently on mobile phone. Such is change but your references to the Green Belt are especially noteworthy. I understand that the new buildings have been built on Green Belt but clearly there has been an element of sensitivity if you are still able to enjoy the views.

[Stanley Stewart]

Thank you, L-L! I've given myself a sharp stricture not to rhapsodize on the many charms and attractiveness of Dower Court, although I do wonder how the elderly residents manage the steep ascent to the site, and I've yet to discover the architectural background to the block of flats with its adjacent recreation room. It's wildly attractive and I always seat myself centrally so that I absorb the seasonal changes and the varying textures on the dense foliage. A further surprise awaits the newcomer as the ceiling is dominated by a large central tower which also contains a cluster of lighting balls, surrounding the beige panelled structure, which stretch to the apex of the tower. I sense a Swedish influence throughout; the maroon carpeted floor to the armchair panelling which matches the wood in the tower. I got permission to take a set of snaps but, alas, am still too much of a techie dummkopf to absorb supplementary notes on 'drop boxes' etc - "Enough, no more..."

Our next meeting is on 14 Nov, 2pm, when guest speaker, James Murray, will introduce us to the work of Eduard Kunneke, (1885-1953), - who he? - a German composer whose London appearances gave him a taste for jazz and dance music.
I'm sure that Mr Murray's exposition will match the eloquence of his Mozart/Da Ponte presentation last March.

During Saturday's tea-break, it was a real pleasure to talk to a member who used to be manager at Banks Music shop at York in days of yore. We could even relate to the mid-50s when the feisty Miss Banks used to manage the shop on its previous site at the corner of Stonegate/Blake Street. Happy memories.

L-L, if you are interested, I could send you a few snaps of Dower Court, external and interiors, with my complements, of course.

[Lat-Literal]

Thank you, L-L! I've given myself a sharp stricture not to rhapsodize on the many charms and attractiveness of Dower Court, although I do wonder how the elderly residents manage the steep ascent to the site, and I've yet to discover the architectural background to the block of flats with its adjacent recreation room. It's wildly attractive and I always seat myself centrally so that I absorb the seasonal changes and the varying textures on the dense foliage. A further surprise awaits the newcomer as the ceiling is dominated by a large central tower which also contains a cluster of lighting balls, surrounding the beige panelled structure, which stretch to the apex of the tower. I sense a Swedish influence throughout; the maroon carpeted floor to the armchair panelling which matches the wood in the tower. I got permission to take a set of snaps but, alas, am still too much of a techie dummkopf to absorb supplementary notes on 'drop boxes' etc - "Enough, no more..."

Our next meeting is on 14 Nov, 2pm, when guest speaker, James Murray, will introduce us to the work of Eduard Kunneke, (1885-1953), - who he? - a German composer whose London appearances gave him a taste for jazz and dance music.
I'm sure that Mr Murray's exposition will match the eloquence of his Mozart/Da Ponte presentation last March.

During Saturday's tea-break, it was a real pleasure to talk to a member who used to be manager at Banks Music shop at York in days of yore. We could even relate to the mid-50s when the feisty Miss Banks used to manage the shop on its previous site at the corner of Stonegate/Blake Street. Happy memories.

L-L, if you are interested, I could send you a few snaps of Dower Court, external and interiors, with my complements, of course.

Many thanks for replying Stanley. I very much like your writing. It was the reference to "Simple Gifts" which initially caught my eye as I am very, very keen on that song and it has travelled with me. Alas, many of my memories of York are pub ones having been a student in the city - Ethel and her daughter Ethel, both over 60, who managed the Blue Bell with iron rod and an always timely closing of curtain across the bar; a talking bird at Walker's on Micklegate; the 47 pence pint at the Cattle Market; the Shires now oddly Seahorse; and live jazz at the John Bull. Later, war was declared with the adjoining car showroom leading to its sad demolition. I have also taken tea at Betty's alongside Eric Pickles, not that he was known to me. I'd also mention Judges Lodging which is an interesting building - it was a restaurant in the mid 1980s - and the De Grey Rooms where I attended a speech given by Roy Jenkins. The Shambles and Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate. The Jorvik. Museum Gardens with its Mummers Plays. So many interesting places in the city! The years? 1982 to 1985.

It would be lovely to see some pictures of Dower Court. Are you able to post them on the forum?

[hmvman]

Many thanks for replying Stanley. I very much like your writing. It was the reference to "Simple Gifts" which initially caught my eye as I am very, very keen on that song and it has travelled with me. Alas, many of my memories of York are pub ones having been a student in the city - Ethel and her daughter Ethel, both over 60, who managed the Blue Bell with iron rod and an always timely closing of curtain across the bar; a talking bird at Walker's on Micklegate; the 47 pence pint at the Cattle Market;the Shires now oddly Seahorse; and live jazz at the John Bull. Later, war was declared with the adjoining car showroom leading to its sad demolition. I have also taken tea at Betty's alongside Eric Pickles, not that he was known to me. I'd also mention Judges Lodging which is an interesting building - it was a restaurant in the mid 1980s - and the De Grey Rooms where I attended a speech given by Roy Jenkins. The Shambles and Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate. The Jorvik. Museum Gardens with its Mummers Plays. So many interesting places in the city! The years? 1982 to 1985.

Thanks for those memories L-L. York still has a lively pub scene as I expect you're aware, but it's not really my scene anymore - too noisy! Betty's is still much the same though, and there are also other fine tearooms/coffee shops to be found around the city centre. Judges Lodging has had mixed fortunes over the years since you remember it, including a prolonged period of closure. But it had a refurbishment last year and is now a trendy bar and restaurant. The Assembly Rooms are also now a restaurant - part of the ASK chain - and I discovered recently that the 'cellist and composer John Hebden performed there when the Assembly Rooms opened in the 1730s.

A couple of weeks ago I walked into the city on a beautiful, warm autumn day and stopped by the Minster. By chance the gentleman, late of Banks, who Stanley mentioned was also there and we sat chatting about music while staring up at the magnificence of the Minster as it shone in the bright sunlight. It's moments like these that make me glad I live here.

[Stanley Stewart]

Thank you, gentlemen! Once again, I think of Pushkin's, 'My memory unfurls its lengthy scroll before me - I shudder, and I curse, but I do not efface the wistful lines'.

November will be the first anniversary of my York RMS membership - grateful thanks to French Frank for promoting this liaison - and I got full value from my modest £15 subscription at the first meeting, a presentation by Alan George and his partnership with the Fitzwilliam Str Quartet, during their affiliation for several years with York University. I also reminded him that I heard their complete performances of the DSCH String Quartets at the Wigmore Hall in the late 70s. Reminders, too, of their memorable experience of playing the 15th quartet for DSCH at York's Station Hotel, circa 1973. AG still lives locally and it would be a special treat if Gavin (hmvman) could entice him to talk to us again.

For clarity, may I add that I shall be 85 in Jan '16, catching up with our dear friend, salymap, who is 8 months my senior. She would adore the setting and, typically, would be part of its innate generosity of spirit. In turn, Gavin is a younger man by several decades and I'm always agog at his nimble technical proficiency as he darts around setting up the speakers and recording equipment with such aplomb. No ceremony or fuss - the quality of sound is quite astonishing, perhaps aided by the deep recess in the ceiling.

Alas, L-L, I haven't the foggiest notion of how to upload images, some helpful suggestions have been sent which leaves me more flustered than enlightened; drop boxes etc!!! However, like Prof Higgins assertion to Eliza, '...and conquer it you will..." hope springs eternally. In the meantime, if you PM me, I'll happily send a few snaps with my complements.

[Lat-Literal]

Thank you ever so much for your gracious and interesting replies to my post. This is your thread, Stanley, so I am not going to write at length in a diversionary way. However, I am in a contemplative mood and some of these thoughts might be of interest. Towards the end of my employment in Westminster, I had to work closely with a man who was originally from the North East and had property in Ripon, North Yorkshire although he lives in a house which is barely a mile from my own. Older than me, single and a brilliant economist, he was renowned for his abruptness to the point of rudeness. Never promoted above middle management, key Government work was dependent on his skills and everyone knew it. Few of my managers would talk to him unless they wanted something at which point they would send me to him to convey their demands. He was never easy with me but it didn't bother me that he had food on his tie or when in meetings he would drink an entire jug of water before anyone could have a sip. We had a connection. And when opening up, he said to me "Do you know what the problem is these days? They want managers and not thinkers but they really wouldn't get anywhere without the thinkers".

In York, we were thinkers, that is, the small group of people with whom I circulated. We were not great thinkers or formal thinkers or anything other than thinkers entirely without objective. We were thinkers, nonetheless, and yet not sufficiently aware that society had already turned its emphasis towards management. When I look back now, I can see how and why an essentially grammar school boy felt like a fish out of water when being on a local authority scholarship at an Independent school in Croydon. It wasn't, as I may have felt on occasions, that I should have attended a grammar school rather than an Independent school but didn't do so because the grammar schools had largely been abolished by 1974. It was because the style in education and even in people was already managerial. The teenagers there now merge in my mind with Blair, Clegg, Cameron and Johnson.

Having decided to turn down an option for King's College, London on the grounds that I might not be able to make the transition, a year in an insurance office on the outskirts of London was enough to make me want to fly. In a strange moment, I sat outside the school in my "new" car with my mother alongside me quite unable to make up my mind on the two places I had selected from "Round 2". Should it be Sheffield or York? The indecision seems bizarre to me now but the former was at least close to the beautiful Peak District. In the end, I went on gut instinct and it turned out to be right. Of course, I didn't get in an aeroplane until nearly 30 and at just under 20 had barely set foot abroad. My knowledge was of woodland surburbia. Attractive environmentally but with a frost in the neighbourhood atmosphere so far as anyone born after the war was concerned. It was also of Inner London, poor, and where the relatives lived to provide it with a sense of emotional warmth based on concepts of community. That wouldn't have been felt if it hadn't been for family who harked back to earlier times. And it was of Greater London's "Mini-Manhattan" where we laughed even if employed forlornly in finance - £3201 pa - and learnt what it meant to be a teenager flitting between "the work crowd" and the remanants of old school groups. Lager among the cold concrete of office blocks. Some had envy towards the few who could get out so why not leave? Reluctance wasn't understood but it was those very people who saw the proclivity to cling and unceremoniously pushed me "upwards" North.

It was emigration. A brief 200 miles was the difference between countries. There was kindness and unkindness and mostly the difference was generational. A fair amount of that distinction resided in my own head but then kindness is an underrated word. On walking alone along the university road for the very first time, I was disconcerted by the group of students heading in the opposite direction with a slightly hysterical and bombastic manner ahead of becoming professional somebodies. An hour beforehand, I had enjoyed a lovely conversation on the train with a Durham miner and his wife. They had bought me tea and then to have set foot in the station with its architectural impact had been breathtaking.

I was lucky. A decent person with the same name as my best friend when aged seven introduced himself to me as I stood in introductory queue expecting to be able to say nothing for several years. The sentimental side to me believes he was sent to me by my grandmother who knew my early friend and loved him. She had recently passed on. The two were different in character - the boy seemingly permanent in one's life but not so and a supposedly naughty sort who could only be calmed in my presence. In truth, I respected him as much as he did me and recognized that all the naughtiness was directly attributable to disturbances between so-called adults in his home. The latter is as quietly sensible as it is possible to be and as the most loyal of mates he became the solid rock throughout 33 years that is rarely found from sibling to sibling. According to him even now, I was the one who was able to get on with a wide range of people. Like my parents in their neighbourhood and my grandmother before them, I was the lynch pin of the group. They fell out with each other regularly and would not have congregated had it not been for me. While true, had it not been for him I would have been back in dear old suburbia inside two weeks.

The guy had spoken to other people which got me speaking to them and in turn to people they knew. Consequently, strange things happened in the winter of 1982-1983. Being thinkers and with no thoughts of the future, we were not inclined to identify with the university any more than was necessary. Rather we became absorbed in the city with people of all backgrounds and all ages. Such, I guess are the privileges of being on arts courses with grants to which one's parents only had to contribute one third and at a time when 80% of the age group didn't go into higher education. With friends from private schools, Independent schools, the remaining grammar schools and comprehensive schools, it was the grammar school that I had always wanted and if I was a true age I was 11 or perhaps four years younger. I am not sure that even in the heady junior school days when friends were aplenty and on adjoining roads that there was ever a time when people knocked on the door nightly to ask one out. A foreign country it might have been but it was one that seemed more familiar and inclusive than any country I'd known. The critic in the group - fashionably objectionable - became close as he tended not to apply his vitriol to me. The one who had spent time on army bases in Hong Kong, had appeared in "When The Boat Comes In" and was writing a play that was being assessed by Ayckbourn seemed so worldly-wise and yet he was a year younger than me. I felt we'd enter into a writing partnership but ultimately he drifted to Reading and became a broker raking in loadsamoney.

The air was crisp. It was always crisp. There was an acute feeling of connection with the weather there, whatever it happened to decide. Being among the the buildings reminded me of the community spirit I had felt when standing on a sack of potatoes in my grandmother's rented South London shop and, erm, singing there in 1968. There were no fluorescent signs. We climbed scaffolding above the Ouse after drinking six pints of real ale, believing that the latter was history and we would never be. We ate fish and chips and meat pie out of paper every night in Lawrence Street without ever thinking of a GP or being bombarded by 21st century media bullies talking about cancer every hour. It was the late 1940s with the NME as a bible. There was football in the absence of any newspaper hooliganism and one could be indoors after the match in time to hear James Alexander Gordon at 5pm. The second hand shop, Riverside Records, provided me with Lindisfarne's "Nicely Out of Tune", Byrne and Eno's "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" and RVW's "A London Symphony" on the same day. I listened to the latter with the sun streaming through my ground floor bedroom window while observing the watermark on the wardrobe.

Yes. The flood years. Thank goodness we now had the barrier except on one evening in the Bay Horse near St Mary's there was an announcement. Would the owner of the car with registration number such and such please rescue it. It is floating down the road. Sure enough as we peered out, as many as three vehicles were floating. We walked home that night as only we could do on top of garden walls as nervous home owners were positioning sand bags. How romantic - that would be in life terms rather than relationship terms - not with having a mortgage ourselves. Mum and Dad sent up the photographs from the Daily Express. The dinghy on the lake in the road when no dinghy was ever there. Such is the fantasy, the fabrication, the duplicity and the control of what is presented by those with power. One learns it will almost always be abuse. It is worse now, of course, because we never did go forward to the late 1940s or the 1950s or the early 1960s in a way which meant that we built on those achievements. Rather it turned into a ghoul which insists on a reality that is as preposterous as it is false. One has to separate from it as best as one can and to find the pockets of humanity, one of which I am in no doubt is Dower Court.

[Stanley Stewart]

I've just come indoors from a stint of gardening chores and am deeply touched and, indeed, stimulated by your comments, L-L, with the fundamental appeal of Dower Court always in the background; I always feel refreshed and elevated after a visit and you've grasped the vitality and subtext in your comments. Time now to break for a meal and think-on about so many implications and associations which sprang to mind; fascinated to grasp your take on the 80s, in particular - my opening quote from Pushkin particularly relevant throughout. To be continued...

[Lat-Literal]

I've just come indoors from a stint of gardening chores and am deeply touched and, indeed, stimulated by your comments, L-L, with the fundamental appeal of Dower Court always in the background; I always feel refreshed and elevated after a visit and you've grasped the vitality and subtext in your comments. Time now to break for a meal and think-on about so many implications and associations which sprang to mind; fascinated to grasp your take on the 80s, in particular - my opening quote from Pushkin particularly relevant throughout. To be continued...

Thank you Stanley.

Pushkin - fiction versus real life but which is really the fiction? Everything came together in my mind in a very real way at that time! I will PM you. On the Judges Lodging, it was possibly the exceptional restaurant in York in the mid 1980s with prices to match so it was only the place for the graduation meal and not for a limited budget. It is disappointing to hear how it has changed and how even the Assembly Rooms has become a part of a wider enterprise. One thing I regret is not having listened to more classical music at that time.

[Stanley Stewart]

An engaging element of Hitchcockian surprise on a dreich York day as guest presenter, James Murray, always has a twinkle in his eye and, talking among ourselves at our last meeting, none of us recognised the name of the composer, Eduard Kunneke (1885-1953), and my first mistake was to confuse his name with composer Krenek and Jonny Spielt auf at the back of my mind. Hitch may have called this the McGuffin! However, from the start, James was admirably articulate and spoke about the era of operetta and the career a young prolific composer who entered the Berlin Musikhochschule in 1903 where he studied piano, musicology and literature. In 1905/6 he attended composition classes with Max
Bruch and between 1907/09 he was employed as chorus master and repetiteur at Berlin's Schiffbauerdamm Operetta Theatre. He also became a house conductor for the Odeon label and inter alia recorded the second act of Tannhauser in 1909. He later joined Max Reinhardt for whom he wrote incidental music for Goethe's Faust
II in 1911. By 1913 Kunneke's second opera, Coeur As (Ace of Hearts) was premiered in Dresden, with performances conducted by Richard Strauss and Ernst von Schuch. He served in a military band during WW1 before negotiating his release from the army in 1916. He also realised that his operetta was his true metier and produced a steady stream of work which enjoyed respectable runs in Berlin and, even as a conductor he became associated with hit shows.

I am grateful to James for a set of notes on the composer's prolific career and, particularly the marker about his second marriage and the birth of his daughter, Eva-Susanne (later known as Evelyn) in 1921 who eventually established a career in cabaret at a cost to herself as a rebel which led to arrest and torture near the end of WWII, worsened by drugs and alcohol. In the interim, between the mid 20s Kunneke detected the move away from operetta and the rhythmic changes which gradually led to dance band music of the 30s, alongside developments in jazz. A delight to hear the BPO play dance music with upbeat aplomb in 1935. At the same time, the dark cloud of Facism pursued an anti-sematic agenda which quickly enforced a law on 'degenerate music' and began a series of tribulations for Evelyn before she left for America in the post-war era. She returned to Germany in the 70s and made several films for Rainer Werner Fassbinder and died in 2001. During the thirties, Kunneke composed scores for the cinema along with extensive recording contracts and befriended the 'King of Jazz', Paul Whiteman. He also fell out of favour with the Nazis when his wife was denounced as Non-Aryan and his music was banned for a time.

James presented a complex theme with enormous dexterity and, as I say, Kunneke's work, although almost unknown today, did a great deal to morph developments into the 20th century with assiduous attention. Returning home, last night, I remember being impressed by a Decca video, 1996ish, Entartete Musik - The Birth of a project - a 40 mins documentary - using original footage from the period and is a fascinating look at extracts from Korngold, Ullman, Schulhoff, Goldschmidt, Schreker and Eisler which highlighted for me the circuitous journey from harmonic operetta to a new age in the 20th century. This documentary now on DVD! Another stimulating presentation which encourages members to think-on. Even 36 hours later, I'm still gaining clarity as I write- at least I think I do!

[Lat-Literal]

An engaging element of Hitchcockian surprise on a dreich York day as guest presenter, James Murray, always has a twinkle in his eye and, talking among ourselves at our last meeting, none of us recognised the name of the composer, Eduard Kunneke (1885-1953), and my first mistake was to confuse his name with composer Krenek and Jonny Spielt auf at the back of my mind. Hitch may have called this the McGuffin! However, from the start, James was admirably articulate and spoke about the era of operetta and the career a young prolific composer who entered the Berlin Musikhochschule in 1903 where he studied piano, musicology and literature. In 1905/6 he attended composition classes with Max
Bruch and between 1907/09 he was employed as chorus master and repetiteur at Berlin's Schiffbauerdamm Operetta Theatre. He also became a house conductor for the Odeon label and inter alia recorded the second act of Tannhauser in 1909. He later joined Max Reinhardt for whom he wrote incidental music for Goethe's Faust
II in 1911. By 1913 Kunneke's second opera, Coeur As (Ace of Hearts) was premiered in Dresden, with performances conducted by Richard Strauss and Ernst von Schuch. He served in a military band during WW1 before negotiating his release from the army in 1916. He also realised that his operetta was his true metier and produced a steady stream of work which enjoyed respectable runs in Berlin and, even as a conductor he became associated with hit shows.

I am grateful to James for a set of notes on the composer's prolific career and, particularly the marker about his second marriage and the birth of his daughter, Eva-Susanne (later known as Evelyn) in 1921 who eventually established a career in cabaret at a cost to herself as a rebel which led to arrest and torture near the end of WWII, worsened by drugs and alcohol. In the interim, between the mid 20s Kunneke detected the move away from operetta and the rhythmic changes which gradually led to dance band music of the 30s, alongside developments in jazz. A delight to hear the BPO play dance music with upbeat aplomb in 1935. At the same time, the dark cloud of Facism pursued an anti-sematic agenda which quickly enforced a law on 'degenerate music' and began a series of tribulations for Evelyn before she left for America in the post-war era. She returned to Germany in the 70s and made several films for Rainer Werner Fassbinder and died in 2001. During the thirties, Kunneke composed scores for the cinema along with extensive recording contracts and befriended the 'King of Jazz', Paul Whiteman. He also fell out of favour with the Nazis when his wife was denounced as Non-Aryan and his music was banned for a time.

James presented a complex theme with enormous dexterity and, as I say, Kunneke's work, although almost unknown today, did a great deal to morph developments into the 20th century with assiduous attention. Returning home, last night, I remember being impressed by a Decca video, 1996ish, Entartete Musik - The Birth of a project - a 40 mins documentary - using original footage from the period and is a fascinating look at extracts from Korngold, Ullman, Schulhoff, Goldschmidt, Schreker and Eisler which highlighted for me the circuitous journey from harmonic operetta to a new age in the 20th century. This documentary now on DVD! Another stimulating presentation which encourages members to think-on. Even 36 hours later, I'm still gaining clarity as I write- at least I think I do!

Very interesting post. Thank you. One website refers to Kunneke as "the successful composer of 1920’s and 30’s operettas (particularly Glückliche Reise) that made generous use of dance forms - think of Gershwin’s Oh Kay and Strike Up The Band". His friend Paul Whiteman commissioned Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue"/orchestrated Robeson's "Ol Man River"!!!