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Clara Schumann (1819-1896): The Unsung Heroine of Romanticism

This lecture-recital will explore the life of Clara Schumann (1819-1896) through her music and surroundings, her achievements and influencers.

The Rite of Spring: A Failure and A Triumph

We will trace the musical, visual and choreographical consequences of this new trend through several later Diaghilev ballets: Parade (Satie/Picasso), Chout (Prokofiev/Larionov), Le Pas d’Acier (Prokofiev/Yakulov).

1928 – Annus Mirabilis of the Christmas Carol

Jeremy Summerly and the St Luke’s Carollers make a case for 1928 as the year in which the Christmas carol went viral.

What is the Opening Chord of 'A Hard Day's Night'?

The Beatles' 'Hard Day's Night' contains one of the most...

The Ballets Russes: Courting the Exotic

Diaghilev found that the Oriental style that had been cultivated by Russian composers was a perfect match for the Parisians’ love of exoticism, and he started to commission new ballets for this market niche.

Freedom Song: The Fisk Jubilee Singers' Story

A choir of ex-slaves, raising funds to build their University, toured America from 1871, suffering discrimination and hardship.

Exporting Russia: Diaghilev’s Beginnings

In this lecture we follow his early years, when he published The World of Art, a provocative Russian journal, exhibited Russian visual art in Paris, and then brought Russian music there, culminating in his production of Musorgsky’s opera Boris Godunov.

Musical Openings

This lecture looks at how composers of all periods have risen to the challenge of how to write a memorable musical opening sentence.

Prokofiev's War and Peace

Sergei Prokofiev’s War and Peace (1953) was an adaptation of Tolstoy’s novel begun during WWII. He saw it as a personal interpretation of the novel.

The Cockney Romantics: John Keats and his Friends

Jonathan Bate will track Keats to Hampstead and tell of the extraordinary circle of writers – opium-eater Thomas De Quincey, essayist Charles Lamb, master-critic William Hazlitt – who wrote for The London Magazine, until its gifted editor was killed in a duel with a rival critic.

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