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Oxford and Cambridge Musical Club
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Music Committee
This is my first report to the membership as Music Secretary, and therefore
(as in all other matters) I keep the example of Alan Reddish close at hand. I
believe he has tended to arrive with a thoroughly-composed speech at the ready,
so I have done likewise. Let’s hope it makes me sound unrecognizably coherent
for once, if unfortunately no more concise.
There have been 19 concerts since the last AGM, of which 10 were Chamber
Concerts, and I’ll deal with those first. To mention a very few highlights
- we heard our Chairman, determined to celebrate the Shostakovich centenary
before the year was out, singing his Alexander Blok songs
- new member Alexandre Hillairet played unaccompanied Hindemith on the
vibrant viola he’d built
- another new member, Susanna Hogan riveted us with Judith Weir’s Grand
Opera for unaccompanied soprano, King Harald’s Saga
- Chris Crocker, who’d put up with gloomy lectures from me about the size of
audience he might expect for his “20th Century Chamber Music” Concert got his
own back by filling the Housman Room so full I could hardly find a seat
- John Crawley brought us our first film show, enriching the Walter Leigh
trio he was putting on with a GPO film from the 30s This was designed to teach
us better telephone manners and featured a different and extremely un-Hindemithian
Leigh style, with the composer’s sister archly starring as a telephone fairy.
The other concerts were the AGM workshop itself, Ed Kay’s orchestral
workshop, the Pro Corda string orchestra workshop, the Open Concert, the New
Members concert, the All Wind Play Day, the Opera, the Concerto Workshop, and
the Gala Concert.
- the Pro Corda workshop did include a number of Club string players, but
perhaps felt a bit too much like a Pro Corda event gate-crashed by us. I am
hoping the balance will be better this year
- the Opera was Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann, a superb choice for our team
of singers, who dazzled in their different ways. There can never be time to
rehearse the orchestra fully for a full length opera, but Ed Kay got things to
come together at the last minute with a collective adrenalin rush.
- the concerto workshop again attracted exactly the right number of
soloists, offering works that combined into a first rate programme with no
tinkering from me. It brought in a good big band for Chris Fifield to conduct.
- finally, whatever is said about the Gala Concert, we were all bowled over
by this year’s 5-part assemblage, and proud that we could lay some claim to
the Oxford contribution from Robyn Parton and Sophie Behrman.
I’m conscious that the Music Secretary, responsible for constructing the
annual programme, has a critical role in keeping the Club alive. During my first
year in office I found myself valuing more than ever our Club’s tradition of
constructing chamber concerts with a different host organizing each event. It
works beautifully. No two events have the same flavour, and even at the end of
the year one can recall with pleasure every programme as the product of an
individual imagination.
Nick Murray (Music Committee Chairman)
April 2007