Programme 2020-21
21 September
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 light.
5 October 7.30pm start
Putney Music’s AGM. It’s your Society, so come and have your say.
19 October
Bars and Isobars. One of the familiar faces among BBC weather forecasters, Ben Rich is also much in demand as a violinist with London’s semi-professional orchestras. He talks to Andrew Keener about his career, music, and meteorology.
2 November
Remembering Sir Thomas Beecham. Our President David Cairns offers a portrait of one of the twentieth century’s most significant and colourful conductors.
16 November
Music, my life – A Gallimaufry of Musical Memories is the title of a forthcoming autobiography by Brian Kay, conductor, broadcaster, and founder-member of The King’s Singers. This evening, Brian will look back on a half-century of professional music making. He talks to Peter Avis. Copies of his book will also be on sale.
30 November
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.
7 December *
Passing the Baton. The conductor Sian Edwards combines a career before 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 (Putney Music 2012-13). 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.
2021
18 January
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.
1 February
Four Handers. 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
15 February
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 of Debussy, A Painter in Sound, was published in 2018. This evening he talks to his friend and contemporary at Caius College, Cambridge, Putney Music’s vice-president Martin Neary. A much-anticipated evening postponed from last season.
1 March
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.
15 March
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-president Andrew Neill.
29 March
Our vice-president David Mellor makes his welcome annual visit to Putney Music.
* Please note only 1 week between meetings
Programmes may be subject to alteration
