Classical Music
Another side of my life!
Long before I knew anything about assessment, learning or teaching (or even science) I became passionate about classical music, and this has been a major part of my life throughout. I collected thousands of LPs, and now have thousands of CDs. I always carry lots of music around with me on iPods.
In the last few years, I’ve been sharing my passion for music in residential weekends at Madingley Hall, Cambridge, and have run programmes on 4th Symphonies (‘Augmented 4ths’), 5th Symphonies (‘Fabulous 5ths’), 1st Symphonies (‘Fantastic Firsts’), ‘Magnificent Ninths’ at Madingley.
Shostakovich: a reflection
This short download is a piece I wrote to celebrate Shostakovich’s Centenary. In fact, the first lecture I ever gave (while a PhD student in science) was to a music society on the (then completed) symphonies of Shostakovich. Shostakovich (764)
Desert Island Discs
I would cheat, and take an iPod with hundreds of recordings on it. Some I would hate to be without include:
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique: Sir Roger Norrington with the London Classical Players – the most exciting version I know of this masterpiece.
Shostakovich: Symphony No.4: Rudolph Barshai with the NDR Symphony Orchestra – there’s so much to discover in the 4th.
Beethoven: String Quartet Op.131: The Italian Quartet – I never tire of this.
Schubert: String Quintet: The Aeolian Quartet with Bruno Schrekker – possibly the one piece I just couldn’t live without.
Janacek: Sinfonietta: Sir Charles Mackerras with the Vienna Philharnonic: full of life, and optimism.
Schumann: 1st Symphony: Rafael Kubelik with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra – to put a spring in my step!
J. S. Bach: the Cello suites. Just sometimes, there’s nothing else which will calm one down like these do.
My piano
Sally gave me a (digital) piano for my 65th birthday, aiming to keep me at home for longer rather than wandering the country (and beyond) as I still do. I’d not had access to an instrument for decades. I can already play all the right notes, but not yet in the correct order. I enjoy struggling through favourite bits of Beethoven, Schubert and so on, at least finding out more about how the great composers brought ideas to reality, even if never aspiring to play anything when anyone else is listening!
