The Vauxhall Band Basset Horn Trio, Fiona Mitchell, Sarah Thurlow and Katherine Spencer.
For the full programme and to book for April 8th – go here.
The original Vauxhall Band, whose performance our trio will be recreating, played at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens – in an ‘orchestra’ building, elevated above crowds of revellers, who would hear ‘the music flowing through the trees, illuminated by lanterns and moonlight, accompanied by the heady scent of flowers and shrubs’.
This image, as you can see, is the cover of David Coke and Alan Borg’s fascinating book about Vauxhall Gardens – about which much more in my next post!
The basset horn
A clarinet and a basset horn
The basset horn is a wooden, single reed wind instrument – a sort of elongated clarinet with colourful, earthy tones. However, its length meant that it was too long for its players to be able to reach its lower stops – hence the bend in its middle! It was mostly heard in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Austria and Germany although there is evidence dating the earliest instruments to the 1760’s.
When Czech musicians Messrs Dworschak, David and Springer came to London in 1791 to perform at Vauxhall Gardens as a Basset Horn Trio, the instrument was relatively new to London where it created somewhat of a stir.
Both Mozart and his friend, the clarinetist Anton Stadler, were basset horn enthusiasts. Stadler wrote 18 basset horn trios while Mozart included them in three of his operas, the Gran Partita and the Requiem as well as composing dozens of pieces for basset horn ensembles. Moving on, in the 19th century Felix Mendelssohn wrote two pieces for basset horn, clarinet, and piano, Richard Strauss used them in several of his operas and they popped up again in the 20th century in Stockhausen’s cycle of operas Licht.
On April 8th the Vauxhall Band Basset Horn Trio will be exploring the repertoire that the original trio may have performed on their arrival in London including several pieces by Mozart. They will also play a piece by Christoph Graupner for the chalumeau, an ancestor of the clarinet developed in the late seventeenth century in Nuremberg. (For a delightful introduction to the chalameau see Katherine’s Spencer’s short video for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment here.)
The performers
Our Vauxhall Band, adopting the name given to the band that played at Vauxhall Gardens, is a collective of leading period instrument performers dedicated to reviving the wealth of original and unique 18th and 19th century repertoire.
Based on the findings of an ongoing research project, with a focus on music in London, concerts are inspired by the popular and glorious music which was performed in pleasure gardens, such as Vauxhall, Ranelagh, and Marylebone, as well as in the King’s Theatre and numerous concert rooms.
For the full programme and to book for April 8th – go here.
Next post – all about the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens!
The Green Room Collective at RichMix
Following on from my post at the end of last month about the Green Room Collective, I went to the launch of the Green Room Festival at RichMix in Shoreditch last night. Two really interesting discussion sessions based around the migrant and refugee experience and then the first real public performance of the work that the group had created during those two weeks at Hawkwood. It was very exciting – and very well received – especially as it had moved on yet again from what I had heard ten days ago.
If you would like to have a listen, check in here for performance dates – the buzz is that there are several coming up including, possibly, a visit to the Edinburgh festival.
Meanwhile, more immediately……..
If you have not yet booked for the London Chamber Ensemble on March 8th I suggest you do so pretty soon as there are very few tickets left.
Madeleine, Gordon, Bridget and Joseph will be playing Charles Wood’s Quartet in D Major and Debussy’s wonderful String Quartet in G minor, his only string quartet.
To book go here.
And then a week later on March 17th we have the next Highgate Society Lunchtime concert.
Declan Hickey and Sophia Elger – guitarist and saxophonist – known as the Tondo. Jazz numbers by the likes of Pat Metheny sit alongside the tangos of Piazzolla and the folk-inspired music of Ciarán Farrell. Can’t wait!!
£15 to include a glass of Bucks Fizz. Book here or pay on the door.
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