Fortunately the membership were on hand to help with the celebrations at our last meeting. Your correspondent was somewhere between Wales and Somerset, thereby missing the whole event. However I am grateful for the man in question for his update....and curiously it is rather subdued...surprises can have that effect...
Eleven members turned up to the August meeting and a further five sent apologies for absence. Despite this somewhat disappointing turnout, we enjoyed a good evening of music making, finishing at 9:20 pm, only slightly earlier than usual. There was also a big surprise for your Chairman halfway through the meeting.
Ray Butcher led our ensembles, which began with an arrangement of “Every Breath You Take” by Sting, from a score provided by Dave Hampton.
Following this we turned our attention to Ricercare and Rondalla Estudiantil.
These are both quite challenging pieces in fairly tricky keys; the latter, in particular, giving us a good run for our money with its complex rhythm structure and accidentals. Ray’s task was not made any easier due to some of us having different versions of Ricercare. However, since the meeting, Shirley and Ray have produced a version and midi file for all of us to use and we are very grateful for these.
Just before the coffee break, I was surprised to see my beloved Theresa enter the hall and immediately feared that something might be amiss. Instead, I was treated to a delightful ceremony to mark my recent 70th birthday.
I received a beautiful glass tankard bearing the BGS Logo and engraved with a lovely message; a signed card bearing a photograph of my Wolfgang Gutscher classical guitar (made for my 50th birthday); a very rich chocolate cake (with champagne bottle candles) baked by Trevor and decorated by Larisa.
I have at least Steve Shirley and Andrew to thank for the card and tankard and for organising the presentation which was made by Steve, who gave a short and very complimentary speech. This was totally unexpected and I cannot say how deeply moved I am by your generosity and thoughtfulness.
You have made me feel very special and your kindness is not taken for granted.
There then followed four very good solo performances:-
Marion Davies played “Clarsach” by David Cottam and made it sound very Celtic indeed.
Freddy Carvalho played “Whispering Grass” by Fred and Doris Fisher.
Colin Baker played “Angie” by David Graham.
Dave Hampton played The Prelude and Allemande from J S Bach’s 2nd ‘Cello Suite.
For the remainder of the meeting we went back to working on the two main ensemble pieces described above. By 9:20 pm, Ray sensed that we had all had enough and we finished what turned out to be an unexpectedly good evening.
August 31st marks the tenth anniversary of the death of our Founder, Norman Vaux. I hope that the September meeting will see a good turn out as a mark of respect for this gifted man, as well as for the very short (but very necessary) AGM. I promise you that the AGM will not be a long and drawn out affair with a lot of boring waffle being spouted. It will be a brief formality and an opportunity for you to make your opinions known to the Committee about the way we run BGS. We already have plans to change the meeting format as a result of members advising us of changes which they would like to see and these will be voted on at the AGM. Most of the September meeting will be playing and individual items will be welcome although a realistic time limit may need to be imposed.
If I have failed to acknowledge anybody or omitted any detail from this Newsletter, please forgive me as it will have been entirely unintentional.
Den.
Note- the agenda for the AGM and the reports will be sent out with the next newsletter
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