Putney on screen
In lieu of our scheduled 2020-21 season our Programme Secretaries produced a collection of video interviews, mostly with the speakers who had been booked to come to us but with a few others added for good measure. The collection was expertly edited for us by audio engineer Oscar Torres.
Exact Contemporaries
The title of the Putney Music meeting held on 5 March 2018 was given as ‘Brothers in Tune’, the brothers in question were the composers, David and Colin Matthews. However illness sadly prevented Colin from travelling to Putney that day. We are therefore very grateful to Colin for agreeing to take part in our series of virtual meetings and to be interviewed by his exact contemporary, Peter Avis, one of our joint programme secretaries. Their conversation is HERE
From Chorister to Maestro
The conductor Edward Gardner OBE began his musical journey as a chorister at Gloucester Cathedral. After studying at King’s College Cambridge and the RAM his career began to take off when he was invited to assist at the Salzburg Festival. He worked with The Hallé Orchestra (assisting Sir Mark Elder) and Glyndebourne Touring Opera. He has worked successfully with many of the leading orchestras in Europe and the USA and was appointed director of the ENO in 2006 and was awarded Conductor of the Year by the RPS in 2008. He is currently Principal Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and takes up a similar position with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2021. He is talking to Andrew Neill HERE
Lives Remembered
Elizabeth Wilson, cellist, teacher, and author, studied with Rostropovich in Moscow, playing in his classes with her friend Jacqueline du Pré. The author of definitive biographies of Rostropovich, Shostakovich (A Life Remembered) and du Pré, she talks to our vice-president Steven Isserlis about her life and the musicians she has encountered. The interview is in two parts:
Part 1 HERE
Part 2 HERE
On Stage and on the Page
Husband and wife Thomas Eisner and Jessica Duchen, respectively a first violinist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra since 1986, and the author of studies of Fauré and Korngold as well as five novels with musical themes, talk to Putney Music’s Vice Chairman Andrew Neill. Interview HERE
On the Air and off the Page
For some 50 years, Stephen Walsh has been among the most vividly communicative of broadcasters, authors, and critics. His biographies of Stravinsky and Mussorgsky remain as touchstones, and an acclaimed study, Debussy: A Painter in Sound, was published in 2018. In this video he talks to Putney Music’s vice-president Martin Neary, his friend and contemporary at Caius College, Cambridge.
This interview was intended for exactly a year ago when we had to cancel our Dryburgh Hall meeting because of the Covid lockdown. It’s great that we can finally hear Stephen and Martin in conversation. Let’s hope it’s not too much longer before we can return to live events again. Interview HERE
Four Handers
In our latest video we have two pianists from entirely different backgrounds coming together as duo partners. Charles Owen and Katya Apekisheva are equally at home as international piano soloists and duo partners. Founders of the London Piano Festival, with its array of distinguished friends and colleagues, they talk to our vice-president Piers Lane about combining careers as soloists, duettists, and festival organisers HERE
Lied Scholar
Translator, song competition juror, author of numerous books on the song repertoire (including The Book of Lieder, an approachable and definitive study and translation of over a thousand songs), former teacher of German at Westminster School and Professor of Lieder at London’s Royal Academy of Music, Richard Stokes talks to our vice-president Ian Partridge about his life with the art of song HERE. Texts and translations of the music played HERE
Richard’s next book, The Complete Songs of Hugo Wolf. Life. Letters. Lieder, will be published by Faber in the Autumn and launched at Wigmore Hall on 2 October 2021.
Passing the Baton
Sian Edwards combines a career in front of some of the world’s finest orchestras and opera companies with her position as Head of Conducting at London’s Royal Academy of Music. She studied in Russia with the pedagogue Ilya Musin the year before her friend and contemporary Martyn Brabbins. This was followed by engagements at Glyndebourne, Covent Garden and English National Opera (where she was music director in the 1990s). She talks to Andrew Keener HERE
Lied Singer
Hailed in Gramophone magazine as ‘the current forerunner in the new generation of Lieder singers’, the young German baritone Benjamin Appl has already established an impressive discography ranging from Bach to Sibelius. He talks to our vice-president Ian Partridge HERE
A Perfect Wagnerite
In this Putney Music Extra Sir Donald Runnicles, General Music Director of Deutsche Oper Berlin, Music Director of the Grand Teton Music Festival, Principal Guest Conductor of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Emeritus of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra talks to his university friend Andrew Keener about his love of Wagner and other German composers HERE
Bars and Isobars
A conversation between BBC weather forecaster Ben Rich and Andrew Keener, which was to have been our evening at Putney on 19 October. A familiar face on television, Ben is also much in demand as a violinist with London’s semi-professional orchestras. He talks to Andrew about his career, music and meteorology HERE
Music, my life – A Gallimaufry of Musical Memories
…is the title of Brian Kay's autobiography by Brian Kay — conductor, broadcaster, and founder-member of The King’s Singers. Brian looks back on a half-century of professional music making, talking to Peter Avis HERE
Defusing the Red Light
Privileged to work in the recording studio with some of today’s most notable musicians, Putney Music’s Programme Secretary Andrew Keener dons the hat of his day job as an Independent Recording Producer to talk to Andrew Neill about musical awakenings and the perilous art of keeping artists happy under the baleful eye of the red recording lights HERE
