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Have you ever wanted to know more about classical music but felt too intimated to ask? Have you ever been at a concert and enjoyed it, but felt like you didn't totally know what was going on?

Or, are you a classical music enthusiast who wants to know more about your favourite works? Maybe interact with others who share your interest?

 

piano from above

 

Semitone's music appreciation classes might be for you. It's informed, but informal; complete but casual. If you want to develop a better appreciation of classical music, then you have to listen to it. Peter introduces each piece by saying something about the composer's place in the development of music, how the piece came to be written and discussing what to listen out for before we listen to it. We will share reactions to each piece.

The cost is £77 for all eleven sessions in a term or £8 for each individual session. If this is difficult, sessions can be offered on a pay-what-you-can basis. For more information on our music appreciation classes, please email info@semitonestudios.com

inside of a pianoEach session is independent so why not try one out? Here is the programme for winter sessions: 

 

Friday 5 January: Twelfth night – no session


Friday 12 January: Joseph Haydn, Symphony No 98 in B flat major, written in 1792 on Haydn’s first visit to London. The first and last movements were encored at the first performance.


Friday 19 January: Ludwig van Beethoven, the four overtures he wrote for the opera Fidelio (or Leonora), his only opera, first performed in 1805 when Vienna was occupied by the French.


Friday 26 January: Franz Schubert, Mass No 6 in E flat major, written a few months before his death but not performed until a year later when it was conducted by his brother Ferdinand.


Friday 2 February: Richard Wagner, Preludes to the operas Der Fliegende Hollander, Tannhauser and Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, dramatic, tuneful and richly scored.  
 

Friday 9 February: Aaron Copland, Dance Symphony, written in 1929 making use of three dances from his early ballet Grohg which was written in 1925 while he was studying in France.  
 

Friday 16 February: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Horn concertos No 2 in E flat major, K.417 and No  
4 in E flat major, K.495 written for Joseph Leutgeb, whom he had known since childhood.  
 

Friday 23 February: Alice Mary Smith, Symphony No 1 in C minor, written when she was 24 and  
performed in London in 1863, the first performance of a symphony written by a British woman.  
 

Friday 1 March: Antonín Dvořák, Nature, Life and Love trilogy of overtures: In Nature’s Realm,  
Opus 91, Carnival, Opus 92, and Othello, Opus 93, written in 1891-2.  
 

Friday 8 March: Sergey Rachmaninov, Piano concerto No 2 in C minor, Opus 18, written after a  
course of hypnotherapy and dedicated to his therapist Nikolai Dahl.  
 

Friday 15 March: William Grant Still, Symphony No 1 in A flat major, Afro-American, which was  
first performed in 1931, possibly the first symphony to have a banjo on the orchestra.  
 

Friday 22 March: Dmitri Shostakovich, Cello concerto No 1 in E flat major, Opus 107, written for  
Rostropovich who learnt in from memory in four days, considered to be one of his greatest works.  
 

Friday 29 March: Good Friday – no session