Louis Spohr Live!

[John H White]

Hello folks,
   Just a reminder that the Kingston Chamber Orchestra will be including Spohr's 2nd Symphony in their concert at All Saints Church, Kingston upon Thames at 7.30pm on Saturday 22nd June. I gather tickets, at £10 each, are available at the door. I've already booked accommodation in the town in order to attend. Certainly, for me, this will be a unique opportunity to hear what has long been a great favourite of mine. The last time I was present at a live Spohr performance was that of his Nonet at Conway Hall, London back in 1957! 
   Cheers,
        John

[Mark Thomas]

Hello John, very good to hear from you. What with the rash of zombie movies and TV shows at present, I'll admit to a slight frisson when I saw a post entitled "Louis Spohr Live!" A shame that I can't make the concert...

[eschiss1]

Not so much frisson as bemusement, here.

[John H White]

I must say that all those forum members that didn't attend Saturday night's concert missed a real treat! Not only was the  performance of the Spohr symphony brilliantly done but the supporting programme that preceded it was well worth hearing. Starting with a lively rendition of Rossini's Barber of Seville overture we had Delius' Summer Night on the River (the only piece that I didn't much care for) followed by Ibert's Flute Concerto featuring the 18 year old Chinese flautist Daniel Shao as soloist. As an encore, he played a fantastically complicated solo piece by a British composer whose name eludes me. This involved about every sort of noise a flute can possibly make including the flutter technique--- not quite my sort of music but extremely entertaining! Andy Meyers, the conductor then conducted his own Cantilena, a very moving tribute to two regular members of the Orchestra and another family member who were killed in a helicopter crash in 2005. After the interval, as a curtain raiser to the Spohr symphony, they played a somewhat avent garde piece by Freddie, Andy's 16 year old son. I'm glad they kept the Spohr to the end, as it formed a fitting climax to the whole concert.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks for the report, John. So glad you were able to attend a concert with a composer you have championed for so long. Must go and give one of his symphonies a spin...

[John H White]

Personally, its likely to be a long time before I play any of my CDs of that symphony again. I found the live performance so overwhelming sitting up front a few feet from the orchestra that I want to savour it in my memory as long as I can. By the way, I'm sure I was the only one there following it from a printed score, thanks to my having copied it out from a facsimile  of a  manuscript copy into Noteworthy software some years back. Andy said he wished he had a printed version to work from as he himself had to borrow a hand written copy from Professor Clive Brown, President of the Spohr Society and a leading authority on his music.
    It might interest forum members to know that the conductor came across this symphony by Googling for a symphony to fit his orchestra i.e. one requiring only 2 horns and no trombones. I've now sent him a list of other orchestral works for which I can print out scores and parts, but the only 2 that fit his specification are Cherubini's Symphony in D major and Ignaz Lachner's Concertino for Horn, Bassoon and Orchestra. I wonder if anyone can suggest other works in this category whose scores are available.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

I appreciate exactly your feeling, John, as you recall and treasure that experience of sitting up front and hearing that Spohr symphony in the flesh. Many the time I've attended a concert, relished what the performance (whether splendid, or 'ordinary', or even with a few fluffs) reveals about a work, and then have come back home, stared at rows of CDs, and then thought that sticking a CD in the player is just as second best, inferior, a great let down, and just as much a frustrating disappointment as.... well.... washing your feet with your socks on.

There is something rather moving about your account of your experience in the concert.

I recall reading (years ago, so I might have got it slightly wrong) that when the grossly corpulent St Thomas Aquinas was in the last hours of his life he glanced over his written life's work, the Summa Theologica and all the rest of it, and in comparison with the apprehension of the Deity he claimed had been given him (rather like Gerontius perhaps) pronounced it all 'so much chaff blowing listlessly in the wind'. A musical experience in the concert hall is for me somewhat akin to St Thomas' vision (and there the comparison ends!), and the sight of all those innumerable rows and rows and pile upon pile of recordings is the sight of so much chaff. (But unlike Thomas I treasure the latter and life would be sadly impoverished without it).

Here endeth the waffle! And may you have many more treasurable experiences!

[John H White]

Oh yes, I remember what the Angelic Doctor said about his vision but I wasn't with him when he said it-----I'm not that old! I think what you say is very true. Nothing can beat getting close up and personal with the music. We were particularly lucky in that respect as the performance was taking place in what was effectively half a church; the other half of which being screened off for extensive renovations. Thus, there was just about enough room to squeeze in the orchestra and the audience together with small areas for taking the admission money and providing the interval refreshments. It reminds me somewhat, but on a much smaller scale, of the world premiere of Havergal Brian's Gothic Symphony where the large volunteer orchestra and umpteen choirs were squeezed together with the audience into Central Hall Westminster. That was another very memorable occasion at the end of which the frail nonagenarian  composer came up to the rostrum to take his bow.