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Shakespeare and the Classical World
Shakespeare and the Classical World This course was held at the City Lit on Saturday 11th November 2017. It was repeated online during the pandemic over three Friday evenings on 5th, 12th and 19th February 2021. A quarter of Shakespeare’s major works were based on stories from the Classical World and have influenced our view…
Charles I
The Life and Times of Charles I This was a one day course run at the City Lit on Sunday 23rd March 2014. It is the second in a series of one day courses on the kings and queens of England. The next one will be Queen Anne. This is how Charles I was advertised:…
String Quartet No. 3
I have always enjoyed chamber music and this is the latest of my string quartets written between 1987 and 1994. First movement – Allegro This movement was influenced by Schubert, a favourite composer of my piano teacher, Eleanor Purce, a pupil of Alfred Cortot. String Quartet No. 3 1st movement Second movement – Adagio This…
Johannes Brahms
Brahms and Bruch This was a comparative study of the two greatest German instrumental and choral composers of their day whose reputations have not fared equally well. Johannes Brahms and Max Bruch were two of the most celebrated composers in late nineteenth century Germany. Bruch predicted that his fame would fade as Brahms’s grew. Although…
Handel and Royalty
Handel fell in love with England on his first visit writing music for Queen Anne herself. He was reconciled with George I partly with his Water Music Suite and wrote the coronation music for George II. It is an examination of how closely his music and career was bound up with the British royal family…
George I
From being the ruler of an obscure German electorate George I suddenly became king of on the most powerful nations in the world in his fifties. He was never popular in his new kingdom but established a constitutional monarchy which has survived to today. This course was run at the City Lit on Saturday 16th…
