Lord Moser in 2007 (© Martin Godwin)

I n September 2015, CAVATINA was saddened to learn of the death of one of its long-

standing patrons, Lord Moser. His fervent support of the arts – perhaps most notably

through his chairmanship of the Royal Opera House between 1974 and 1987 – was lent to

CAVATINA on several public occasions, always to great effect.

Having started to learn the piano at the age of seven (his mother was a talented pianist),

Lord Moser became an accomplished musician, with a life-long love of chamber music,

formed during the musical evenings of his childhood at home in Berlin. He was

particularly fond of the Amadeus Quartet, and became a member of the board of the

Amadeus Scholarship Fund following the quartet’s retirement in 1987, a trust formed to

help young string players.

Lord Moser, statistician, educationist, banker, and arts administrator, born 24 November

1922; died 4 September 2015.

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We are delighted to welcome the composer

Roxanna Panufnik as our new patron.

Roxanna studied composition at the Royal

Academy of Music and since then has

written a wide range of pieces – opera,

ballet, music theatre, choral works,

orchestral and chamber compositions, and

music for film and television – which are

performed all over the world.

Roxanna has a great love of world music,

which has culminated in her Four World

Seasons for violinist Tasmin Little, the world

première of which was picked by BBC Radio

3 to launch their Music Nations weekend,

celebrating the London Olympics. Other

works stemming from this passion include

her multi-faith album for Warner Classics,

Love Abide, and the specially-commissioned

Dance of Life: Tallinn Mass, written to

celebrate Tallinn’s reign as European Capital

of Culture in 2011.

She is especially interested in building

musical bridges between faiths and her first

project in this field was the violin concerto

Abraham, commissioned for Daniel Hope,

incorporating Christian, Islamic, and Jewish

chant to a make a musical analogy for the

fact that these three faiths believe in the

same one God. This work was substantially

converted into an overture for the World

Orchestra for Peace, and was premiered in

Jerusalem and London under the baton of

Valery Gergiev, in 2008 and at the 2014 BBC

Proms, respectively.

2016/17 holds some exciting projects,

including a commission for Garsington

Roxanna Panufnik—CAVATINA’s new patron (photo by Paul Marc Mitchell)

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Opera’s 2017 season and recording her Four

World Seasons with Tasmin Little and the

BBC Symphony Orchestra for release on

Chandos.

Roxanna is Associate Composer with the

London Mozart Players. Her compositions

are published by Peter’s Edition Ltd and

recorded on many labels including Warner

Classics, Chandos, Signum, and EMI

Classics.

Roxanna’s previous relationship with

CAVATINA includes one commission for

the Wihan Quartet: Cavatina & Moravian

Dance. On its première at Wigmore Hall,

reviewer Peter Grahame Woolf wrote: “The

new Cavatina was composed as a ‘signature

tune’ , designed to be easily recognized by

young listeners, whilst a Moravian Dance

which follows is based upon a traditional

Czech folk melody.”

SIMON’S MARVELLOUS ‘MAGGINI’

Simon Majaro, founder executive trustee, has long made string instruments as a hobby.

Here, David Wigram (violist of the Piatti Quartet) talks about getting to know one of

Simon’s copies of a fine instrument by the Brescian-born seventeenth-century maker,

Giovanni Paolo Maggini:

“After a concert with my quartet at Netherhall House, which

was kindly sponsored by Simon and Pamela, Simon

mentioned to me that he had a Maggini copy that he’d made a

few years previously that was sitting around at home doing

nothing. I was of course very interested to have a go and see

how it was sounding. On playing it I found that it had a

beautiful and easily controlled sound, but that it would

definitely benefit from being played on a more regular basis

(as all string instruments need regular playing in order to

realise their full potential). Simon agreed and kindly suggested

that if I was interested he would be very happy for me to take

it and use it in the quartet over the next year.

Since then I have been using it regularly and getting to grips

with its unique personality and quirks: it’s been a great

pleasure getting to know Simon’s viola over the last few

months. With its rich and easy sound it performs well

throughout all registers, retaining true quality of sound even

in the highest positions. My thanks go to Simon for entrusting me with his ‘baby’ and I

look forward to seeing how it develops and evolves over the next year.”

David Wigram · viola, Piatti Quartet

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Joanna Wyld—CAVATINA’s new Schools Co-ordinator (photo by Tommaso Tuzj)

Another recent addition to the team at

CAVATINA is Joanna Wyld, who is the

new Schools Co-ordinator, responsible

for developing further both the number

of visits to schools each year, and also

their geographic reach around the

country.

Joanna Wyld was born and educated in

London before reading Music at New

College, Oxford, where she was an

instrumental scholar. She taught music

theory to the choristers of New College

Choir, and was listed as one of the

Women of Distinction in 25 Years of

Women at New College. Joanna then

took a Masters degree in composition at

King’s College London and studied flute

with Clare Southworth at the Royal

Academy of Music.

Joanna is an accomplished flautist and

was principal flute of all the major

Oxford orchestras. She was the joint

winner of the Oxford University Sinfonia

Composition Competition for her

orchestral work Jethro Furber’s Change

of Heart, based on the novel

Omensetter’s Luck by William H. Gass.

Joanna’s compositions were also

performed by the Choir of New College,

Oxford, and in workshops with the BBC

Singers and composer and pianist John

McCabe, who described her piano

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Sonatina as “exciting”. She was commissioned by Edward Higginbottom to

orchestrate a Bruckner Motet for performance by the combined choirs of New

College, Magdalen College, and Christ Church, Oxford in the Sheldonian Theatre,

and has re-orchestrated two Mozart operas for performance by opera company Hand

Made Opera.

Joanna is an experienced writer, editor, and proof-reader, and between 2001 and

2007 was Editor at Sanctuary Classics. When writing for children Joanna has shown

particular versatility, completing a note in verse for a disc narrated by Harry Enfield,

as well as writing a short biography of Enfield, commissioned by his agent. On the

strength of this release, Magpie’s Susan Stranks commissioned Joanna to write a

poem for the children’s online radio station Fun Radio Live.

Joanna is passionate about music education. In addition to her writing and editorial

work, she is a flute teacher with the Bromley Youth Music Trust, and is part of a trio

comprising two flutes and piano called Trillium.

In 2014 Joanna won the Oxford University Press spoof Grove Dictionary article

competition, and was also awarded both second and third runner-up slots. The OUP

judges noted: “… in wit and prose most [of the shortlisted entries] seem to have

flowed from the fingertips of the same inspired author”, one judge adding that the

winning entry was “the only one that made me laugh out loud.” The winning

submission is reproduced below:

Henderson, Lucas John (b Philadelphia, 19 June, 1910, d Appenzell, Switzerland, 27

November, 1987). American composer. His style encompassed the avant garde and, later,

post-modernism, including works which paid tribute to, or satirised, the music of other

composers. His 1956 piece, Cage, an homage to John Cage, consists of a cage, the bars of

which have been loosely interwoven with violin strings. The performer, who need not be a

violinist, is required to pluck the strings while emulating the movements of a bird. In a

follow-up to this work, Byrd-Cage (for performer, cage and tape, 1958), a recording of

Byrd’s motet Siderum rector is played throughout the performance. When the original

score to Henderson’s satirical fusion of Stravinsky and Beethoven, Oiseau de für Elise (for

voice and Bunsen burner) was destroyed by fire, Henderson ceased composing altogether,

retiring to a life of quiet solitude in the Swiss village of Appenzell.

Bibliography

N. Doggerel, The Anechoic Chambers of the Mind (New York, 1967)

KEITH G. GRAFING

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Ticket Scheme

The Ticket Scheme continues to grow, in

turn offering a greater number of

opportunities for young people to access

world-class chamber music across the

country. Indeed, this reach is to be

significantly expanded in 2016, as

CAVATINA welcomes its first ever

members to the programme in Scotland:

the Cottier Chamber Project in Glasgow,

and the New Town Concerts Society in

Edinburgh. Both additions are the result

of generous benefaction from two of

CAVATINA’s Friends in Scotland, and

exemplify the invaluable support that

you offer CAVATINA.

Other new members include the Three

Choirs Festival – the oldest, non-

competitive classical music festival in

the world – a series of concerts in

Penarth Pier Pavilion (thereby marking

CAVATINA’s return to Wales,

following the closure of Sunday morning

coffee concerts at the National Museum

Cardiff), Lewes Chamber Music Festival,

the Bristol Proms, and Sunday Concerts

at London’s Conway Hall. The latter

concert series has recently enjoyed the

preliminary successes of an experiment

into further widening the audience’s

demographic by offering free admission

not only to the young people who attend,

but to some of their parents, too. The

idea behind this rationale is to

encourage families to try such concerts,

in the hope that concert-going can then

become a habitude. Further such trials

will be offered to members of the Ticket

Scheme throughout 2016 to see whether

it is a successful and worthwhile

programme overall.

“Listening to an early Beethoven Trio eight times in succession might

have been hard work. But given the immense talent on offer it wasn’t,

though making the final choice was! All eight trios had something

individual to say about the music although, at the final hurdle, both

the Morisot Trio (first prize) and the Jørgensen Trio (second) excelled

beyond my wildest dreams, the Morisot reaching top dollar because of

an added degree of technical brilliance. But the RCM, Zengö, Mathias,

and Cordoso Trios were also excellent … and had the rivalry been less

spectacular, it would have been just as difficult to choose between

those four. Altogether an exceptional experience and my deepest

gratitude to all who made it possible.”

Adjudicator of the 2015 CAVATINA Intercollegiate Chamber Music

Competition, the broadcaster and musicologist Rob Cowan.

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All in all, the Ticket Scheme provided free entry to young people to 230 concerts in

2015 – the highest number yet – with almost 2,000 8-25-year-olds taking advantage

of the offer. This is in addition to the average annual reach of CAVATINA’s school

visits to around 6,000 children.

Feedback from a pupil at Aylward Primary School, Middlesex, following a CAVATINA School Concert given by the Camarilla Ensemble

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CAVATINA would like to thank the following for their generous and constant support:

Andor Charitable Trust, The Coln Trust, John Lewis Partnership, The Monument Trust,

The Paul Morgan Charitable Trust, The Laurie & Gillian Marsh Charitable Trust,

The Fidelio Trust, Peter Storrs Trust, The Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation, Anonymous Benefactors

CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust

52D Maresfield Gardens, London, NW3 5RX

info@cavatina.net · www.cavatina.net

020 7435 8479

Newsletter Editor · Thomas Hancox

Patrons: Derek Aviss OBE, Sir Vernon Ellis, Edmond Fivet CBE, Prof. Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, John Gilhooly OBE,

Gavin Henderson CBE, Lady Alison Irvine, Steven Isserlis CBE, Seppo Kimanen, Roxanna Panufnik, Gábor Takács-Nagy,

Sir John Tusa, Dr Peter Woodford, Benjamin Zander

Trustees: Dr Ioan Davies, Pamela Majaro MBE, Simon Majaro MBE, Pauline McAlpine, John Wright

Registered Charity No. 1067716

Dates for your Diary

CAVATINA Intercollegiate Chamber Music Competition

Royal Academy of Music, Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5HT

Wednesday 11 May 2016 · 2.00pm

Set Piece: Beethoven Quartet in D, Op. 18, No. 3

Adjudicator: Richard Morrison (chief music critic for The Times)

·

Annual CAVATINA Family Concert at Wigmore Hall

Saturday 18 March 2017 · 11.00am

Piatti Quartet