Some Interesting Facts about Gerald Finzi...

The next event in our Concert Series, English Serenade, takes place in a few weeks time at St. Lawrence Church, Hungerford. In the run up to it we thought we'd explore the composers that are featured a bit further. This week we've been looking at Gerald Finzi (1901-1956)... So here a few things you might not have known about him:

• Of Gerald’s three brothers and one sister, only his sister Kate lived past the First World War. His brother Felix committed suicide in India in 1913, Douglas died of pneumonia contracted while at Bradford College in 1912, and Edgar died in action on September 3, 1918. Preceding the early deaths of his brothers, Gerald’s father Jack Finzi died just before Gerald’s eighth birthday. These deaths coupled with the death in 1918 of Ernest Farrar, also killed in action, with whom Finzi studied from 1914 to 1916 and who acted as a father figure for him, helped to confirm Finzi's introverted nature. His reaction to this multiple loss was to turn to literature and poetry, forces that would shape much of his life.
• He worked on behalf of the celebrated war poet and composer Ivor Gurney, cataloguing and editing his work for publication. Gurney has suffered a nervous breakdown after WW1 and had been in mental institutions since 1922. Finzi would be the driving force behind Gurney's Music & Letters symposium and the eventual publication of five volumes of songs and two collections of poems.
• He saved a number of rare varieties of English apples from extinction.
• In 1939, during the dark war years, he founded Newbury String Players, an amateur chamber orchestra, which he would conduct until his death in 1956. With Arts Council funding and a small petrol allowance, it became a mobile music body, offering performance opportunities to talented young musicians and taking music wherever it was wanted across the South of England.
• During the war years he opened his house in Ashmansworth, Hampshire to a number of German and Czech refugees.
• The outbreak of WW2 delayed the first performance of Dies Natalis at the Three Choirs Festival, which could have established Finzi as a major composer much sooner.

Andrew Dickinson, winner of the Hampshire Singing Competition, performs Finzi's Dies Natalis with Southern Sinfonia on Friday 15 March 2013 at St. Lawrence Church, Hungerford. 

To find out more about our Concerts and Café Concerts in Berkshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire and across the South, or our Education & Outreach programme, please visit the Southern Sinfonia website, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Don't forget to subscribe and please feel free to leave your thoughts and comments for us below.

Louis XIII...A Colourful Character

Founder of the famous five-part string orchestra Les Vingt-quatre Violons du Roi (the subject of Philip Brown’s upcoming Café Concert), Louis XIII was quite a character…Here a few interesting facts about him:

Ravaillac brandishing a dagger

He rose to the throne at the age of 9 after his father (Henry IV) was assassinated by a Catholic fanatic, François Ravaillac (because Henry had guaranteed religious liberties to Protestants).

Marie de Medici

He staged a coup d’état against his mother Marie de’ Medici and her Italian hangers-on in 1617, resulting in Marie’s exile, the assassination of her favourite Concino Concini and the beheading (and burning!) of Concini’s widow for witchcraft

Louis XIV

He married Anne of Austria (daughter of Philip III of Spain). The marriage was only briefly happy and it took 23 years before they managed to produce an heir! He was named Louis-Dieudonné (Louis god-given), because the court and country saw his birth as a divine miracle. He would later become Louis XIV. 

Henri Coiffier de Ruzé

There is no evidence that Louis XIII had any mistresses, earning him the title ‘Louis the Chaste’. Although he is said to have had a penchant for one of his favourites, Henri Coiffier de Ruzé, Marquis de Cinq-Mars (who, despite his catchy name, was later executed at the age of 22 for conspiring against Louis XIII with the Spanish).

The man himself - Louis XIII

Louis XIII was a bit of trend setter. He significantly contributed to the re-emergence of male wig-wearing, which would remain dominant in European male fashion until the French Revolution

The 3 Musketeers, with Gene Kelly

He was famously portrayed as a bored and sour king in Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers. 









To find out more about our next Café Concert 'Violons du Roi' with specialist baroque violin-maker Philip Brown visit our website...

Speed interview with Sasha Calin...

Here at Southern Sinfonia, we are all very excited about our first Cafe Concert of 2013! Taking place on Friday 22 February at Corn Exchange, Newbury and featuring Sasha Calin (oboe) with Simon Lane (piano), playing a very special programme of Britten, Bach and Saint-Saens, it promises to be fantastic way to start the weekend. We caught up with Sasha to ask her a few quick questions...

What has been your career highlight so far?

Playing an excerpt from the Der Rosenkavalier (the 'rose giving' scene) at the opening of the Salzburg Festival in 2010. It was my first concert with the Mozarteum and it has a gift of an oboe solo. Christa Ludwig (one of the best ever 'Octavian's) and Daniel Barenboim were in the audience. Pretty stressful but an amazing experience!

How do you relax when you aren't performing?

I go to both ends of the physical spectrum: I either go running, or I sit on the sofa for hours on end watching TV series. At the moment I'm taking a break from Grey's Anatomy to watch the third series of The Killing. I've also just taken up the guitar which I guess I'd put somewhere between the two, in terms of physicality!

When/ where are you most happy?

When a concert's gone well and, possibly after a modest celebratory drink with colleagues (?!), I'm cycling home past the beautiful mountains in Salzburg.

If you could travel back in time where would you go?

North America pre-1492. I think it's one of the most beautiful and environmentally versatile countries in the world, and I'd love to see what it was like before the Big Mac arrived. 

What is the most played piece of music on your Itunes/ in your CD collection?

The song "Hallelujah" in any one of its many guises - Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley and k.d.lang are the versions that I know, but I'm sure there are more out there!

Other than your Café Concert with Southern Sinfonia, what else have you got planned for 2013?

2013 is looking good in terms of its musical opportunities: there's a lot of Mozart (as you might expect!), but there's also a fair bit of Brahms and Tchaikovsky thrown in, plus a tour with Budapest Festival Orchestra to Oman (the middle East is rapidly becoming the new tour destination of choice). In the summer I'm coaching at the Amateur Chamber Music Week in Verbier (Switzerland) which I did a few years ago, and have rarely spent a more fulfilling or entertaining week! Away from the oboe, I'm looking forward to our annual family holiday in Cornwall. It's amazing how living abroad increases the satisfaction of holidaying in England!

For more information about Sasha Calin's upcoming Café Concert and to book tickets, please visit the Southern Sinfonia website. 

Song of the Earth

If you missed the premiere of the Song of the Earth (or even if you didn't), Hampshire Music Service made a short video of the performance, which you can take a look at below...

Just to remind you, Song of the Earth was a new piece written by June Boyce-Tillman performed by 300 local primary school children, us (Southern Sinfonia) and local community choirs, at Winchester Cathedral. It was a collaborative education project between Hampshire Music Service, us (Southern Sinfonia) and the University of Winchester in celebration of the Queen's Jubilee and the Olympics... and was amazing fun!

To see what else we're up to this season, have a look at our website.