Newsletter Vol 13 No 3 September 2009
Editorial
In this issue, we look back at some highlights and achievements of the year so far; and we look forward to the first events of our new season. Download a report of the Congress of the International Richard Wagner Societies (RWVI) in Dresden in May (Word format). We are most grateful to Janet Hilder for providing this full and interesting account. The new President of the international society, Professor Eva Märtson, has repeatedly stressed the important duty for all Wagner Societies to encourage the appreciation of and knowledge of Wagner's work among young people. The RWVI of course organises the Stipendienstiftung which allows 250 young people to attend Bayreuth each summer, all expenses paid, including our own Bayreuth Scholar, who this summer saw the Ring cycle there. Our Society also contributes towards the cost of sending a scholar from Eastern Europe to the Bayreuth Festival.
A unique event involving young people was also hosted in Bayreuth this August: Daniel Barenboim's East-West Divan Orchestra gave a morning concert of works by Liszt, Wagner and Berlioz in the Stadthalle. It was evident from the sheer fervour of enthusiastic applause what a significant and musically outstanding occasion this proved to be. People even younger were provided for at the Bayreuth Festival 2009, with a special children's version of The Flying Dutchman proving a sell-out success. (It had a happy ending!)
Every three years the RWVI organises another important occasion for young artists. This is the International Competition for Wagner Voices, founded in 1994, when Violeta Urmana and Mihoko Fujimura were among the finalists. Our Society has sponsored Fiona Scott in this year's Competition, and we are delighted to report that Fiona was successful in the eliminatory round held in Bayreuth on 11August. She thus goes forward to the semi-finals in Karlsruhe in October. Your chairman and secretary will be there to support her.
Over the same May weekend as the Dresden Congress, the London-based Wagner Society mounted a special weekend of its own in Aldeburgh, taking the theme 'The London Rings from Solti to Pappano'. There was a very strong line-up of participants, including Humphrey Burton, David Cairns, Dame Anne Evans, Lionel Friend, Dame Gwyneth Jones, John Lucas, Barry Millington, Antonio Pappano, Lady Valerie Solti, Sir John Tomlinson and Keith Warner. I am very grateful to the chairman of the London Society, Malcolm Rivers, for inviting two of our Committee to attend. This was an important re-inforcement of the link between our Societies and we stressed our desire to share information and also events: indeed some of the VIPs listed above have already agreed to visit us in Edinburgh. Again the pre-eminent theme of this celebration of the famous conductors of the Ring in London was their encouragement of young singers, and the vital necessity of helping students and potential Wagnerian artists today - a point emphasised especially by Dame Gwyneth and Lady Solti.
So I make no apology for proposing that the entertainment to follow this year's AGM (see below) deserves your enthusiastic support and that the suggested ticket price will be a gratefully received donation towards our own Society's work in encouraging such young talent.
Forthcoming Events
Sunday 20th September at 7.00pm: Annual General Meeting And Evening Recital
Notice is given of the Thirteenth Annual General Meeting of the Society. Any member wishing to serve on the committee should advise the Secretary in advance, with the names of a proposer and seconder. At 8pm, after the official business and refreshments, there will be a short recital from the winners of the Society's Bayreuth Scholarship of the last two years, Fiona Scott and Bjartmar Sigurdsson. They will perform Act I Scene Three of Die Walküre, and a group of songs. The pianist is Susanna Wapshott.
Edinburgh Society of Musicians, 3 Belford Road. Admission to the AGM is free to all members, but for those wishing to stay for the recital we suggest a donation of £10.00 to help with room hire and as contribution to our support for young artists. Please note the early start time!
Sunday 11th October at 7.30pm: Wagner's Mendelssohn -
A Lecture by Monika Hennemann
Monika Hennemann will attempt to shed some new light on the fascinatingly complex artistic relationship between Wagner and Mendelssohn. She outlines not only the familiar story of Wagner's combative literary response to Mendelssohn, but investigates hitherto hidden Mendelssohnian influences on Wagner's mature works, impressions that even emerged unbidden in the elderly Wagner's dreams. Among other things, she will reveal some strangely compelling connections between the Hebrides Overture, Die Walküre - and Scottish folk songs! Monika Hennemann has taught at Florida State University and the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music. She is a visiting lecturer at Birmingham University (U.K) and Programme Director of the Deutsche Sommerschule am Atlantik, University of Rhode Island. Her publications include chapters in the Cambridge Companion to Mendelssohn, the Cambridge Companion to Liszt, Mendelssohn in Performance (Indiana University Press) and The Mendelssohns: Their Music in History (Oxford University Press). She has recently completed a book on Mendelssohn's opera projects. For this centenary year she has broadcast frequently on US radio and contributed an item on Mendelssohn in Scotland for a television programme Künstler und Landschaften, Artists and Landscapes (Deutsche Welle TV).
Edinburgh Society of Musicians, 3 Belford Road. Admission £5 members; £6 guests.
Sunday 8th November at 7.30pm: "My Ideal Alberich" - Frederick Robson And The Victorian Theatre.
A Lecture By Stewart Spencer.
Stewart Spencer taught medieval German literature at the University of London and has translated books on Bach, Liszt, Mozart and Wagner. He has also written widely on Wagner, having served as contributor to and editor of numerous volumes on the composer and his work. We are delighted to welcome a scholar of his distinction to Edinburgh. Further details of his lecture will appear in our next Newsletter.
Edinburgh Society of Musicians, 3 Belford Road. Admission £5 members; £6 guests.
Saturday 19th December from 6.00pm: Christmas Party
Those happy people who attended last year's party at the Scottish Arts Club in Edinburgh's Rutland Square will contentedly recall a rich feast indeed. We enjoyed an erudite guest of honour, live music, and a superb buffet supper. This successful formula is to be repeated at the same venue this year, when we will welcome as our special guest a much-loved presenter from BBC Radio 3, Christopher Cook, a longstanding member of our Society who will share with us some very personal reflections on Wagner and his art. Welcoming drinks from 6pm; an hour with our speaker and some music at 6.30 pm; supper at 7.30pm.
Please apply for tickets by downloading the booking form.
The 2009-2010 season marks the Silver Jubilee of the founding of a Wagner Society in Scotland, and we hope to celebrate this and the return to Scotland of our patron Donald Runnicles OBE as conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with a reception in his honour at the Scottish Arts Club during the season. The early months of 2010 will bring visits from the eminent Berlioz scholar David Cairns; Malcolm MacDonald to talk about Wagner and Schoenberg; a film evening of extracts from some recent DVDs and archive material; and an event at the National Library of Scotland to view some of its Wagner rarities. Looking further ahead the dates for next year's Summer School on Tannhäuser are 9-12 July (venue to be confirmed).
Members are reminded that they will always be welcomed at Wagner Society events in London. Please visit their website for details: www.wagnersociety.org
Special CD Offer
Lohengrin: Conducted by Woldemar Nelsson
Bayreuth Festival Chorus and Orchestra
with
Peter Hofmann, Karan Armstrong, Elizabeth Connell,
Siegfried Vogel, Leif Roar, Bernd Weikl
Catalogue no. 88697527342. 3 CDs.
Pre-ordered copies will be available at the meeting on 11th October
Our price to members £15.99
If you would like to reserve a copy, please order through Derek Watson (address below) enclosing a cheque made payable to Linton Books for £15.99.
If you wish the item to be posted please add £2.00 to your cheque.
The Wagner Society of Scotland Scholarship 2010
A fund has been established to enable a young artist to attend the Bayreuth Festival in 2010. The successful applicant will receive £900 to defray the cost of travel expenses, meals & accommodation. The winner will also receive tickets for Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg on 5th August, Lohengrin on 6th August and Parsifal on 7th August. In addition the Richard Wagner Scholarship Foundation will arrange lectures, a tour of the Festival Theatre, visits to the Wagner and Liszt museums and other sightseeing and social events commencing on 04/08/2010. Application forms, rules and conditions can be downloaded from our website or obtained from Iain Millar, 46 Easter Hermitage, Edinburgh EH6 8DR (iain.millar@leith46.plus.com). The winner of the 2010 Scholarship will be announced in early February 2010.
News in Brief
- Fiona Scott is a soloist in a performance of Mendelssohn's Lobgesang by the Edinburgh Royal Choral Union at the Usher Hall on Saturday 3rd October at 7.30pm. The concert, part of the 150th anniversary season of the ERCU, is conducted by another former winner of our Society's Bayreuth Scholarship, Michael Bawtree, and includes the premiere of a new work by Judith Bingham.
- Ian Beresford Gleaves gives a study weekend on Der fliegende Holländer at Urchfont Manor College, Devizes, Wiltshire, 6-8 November. Details on www.urchfontmanor.co.uk
- The Edinburgh Players Opera Group will perform Die Walküre at Portobello Town Hall on Sunday 27th September starting at 11.00am. Our members are welcome to attend the day event: a contributory donation of £15.00 is suggested. More information from our member Philip Taylor on 01368 850 235.
- The annual Richard Wagner Festival in Wels, Austria, is from 30th May to 5th June, and includes performances of Tristan und Isolde and Lohengrin.
www.wagner-festival-wels.com - Derek Watson offers two terms of Introducing Opera at the Edinburgh Society of Musicians. The first starts on 14th October at 7pm. Pre-booking is recommended. An addition to the weekly classes this year is a winter residential study weekend on Der Rosenkavalier at Carberry Tower near Edinburgh from 22nd-24th January. If you wish a brochure for the classes and/or the Rosenkavalier weekend, please contact Derek.
- Opera Ireland will give two concert performances of Das Rheingold as part of their autumn season at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin, on 19 and 21 November 2009. www.operaireland.comwww.operaireland.com
Chairman and Newsletter editor: Derek Watson, Deanfoot House, West Linton, Peeblesshire EH46 7EA Tel 01968 660339 Fax 01968 661701; e-mail derek@lintonbooks.plus.com
Secretary: W S Scott, 83 East Claremont Street, Edinburgh EH7 4HU; Tel 0131-556 2617; Fax 0870 0568159; e-mail will@elgar1.plus.com
Treasurer: John Holcombe, 4 Galleon Court, Lamer Street, Dunbar, East Lothian, EH42 1GX; e-mail john@holc.wanadoo.co.uk
