The Gilbert and Sullivan Newsletter Archive

GILBERTIAN GOSSIP

No 37 -- Summer 1991     Edited by Michael Walters



THE YOUNG EDWARD GERMAN: A programme of Music to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of the Composer. Tuesday 2 December 1986; Merchant Taylor's School, Threadneedle Street, London EC2

This interesting concert was introduced by Brian Rees, an old boy of the school, and the author of a biography on German. It was attended by some of German's surviving relatives, and performed mainly by pupils and old pupils of the school, with one or two guests. It contained both familiar and unfamiliar music, but concentrated on the latter; the two violin solos which opened the programme ("Chanson d'Amour" and "Album Leaf") are unpublished, and were believed never to have been played since German's academy days. The rest of the programme consisted of a number of songs, piano solos, part of a trio in D major for violin, cello and piano, a Te Deum, an organ solo, a bourre and gigue from incidental music to Much Ado about Nothing, and an overture written for Richard Mansfield's production of Richard III.

The performance was quite good for a school concert, but one could have wished that the music could have been heard, and assessed, under slightly better performance conditions. Only in that way could one have decided whether German's music was really worthy of more attention. Nevertheless, it was a very pleasant evening.

MICHAEL WALTERS



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