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You will hardly believe the next thing that happened to me!  It was 1928, and I was enjoying an evening of ‘new music’ in one of Frankfurt’s night clubs, where Fritz Hoffmann was obviously appreciating the freedom and variety of new post-war sounds!   Kurt Weill was particularly popular.  Into the bar came a young man… Read more

I now changed hands yet again, when Nelly Barth decided to lend me to one of her cousins, Fritz Hoffman, a member of ‘das Frankfurter Rundfunk-Symphonie-Orchester’. I was aware of the intoxicating strains of jazz, the Charleston rage, and the sounds of the ‘roaring twenties’, the music now filling my body and frame was an… Read more

We now need to go to the historic German town of Marburg, the place from where my rescuer Hans came. Soon after the devastating attack which caused my neck to be shattered and broken (for the second time), the German officer Hans Hoffman, who took pity on me, took me home with him; he was… Read more

During my life I had the great privilege of playing pieces written by many of the composers who had experienced the Great War first hand, and first ear.  I have already mentioned my familiarity with Vaughan Williams, but his 3rd Symphony is especially associated with his feelings about the War. Others have been similarly influenced… Read more

I recall many other ‘artistic’ and aesthetic activities in the trenches, including the playing of records (Beethoven, Brahms and Wagner) in an officer’s ‘Quarters’. This was before that catastrophic explosion which had torn me apart. Also, I heard some poetry being read on occasion. (Robert Nichols) With the encouragement of a Wesleyan Chaplain, Revd Arthur… Read more

Charles Woodhouse & I were aware that, during his stay in 1915 at Thomas Beecham’s Watford home, Frederick Delius came to know some of the teachers at the local Watford School of Music, and this has an interesting link to my latest owner Harvey Richardson.  One of the piano teachers at the Watford School of… Read more

All this talk of my friend Frederick Delius has reminded me of some unexpected and surprising memories. In 1910, Thomas Beecham conducted the premiere of Delius’s new opera ‘A Village Romeo and Juliet’ at Covent Garden, and I was in the orchestra with Charles Woodhouse.  This opera includes the beautiful orchestral intermezzo ‘Walk to the… Read more

Before the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, Charles Woodhouse played with me in an increasing number of works which had been inspired by Folk Songs, many of which had been recently collected by young English composers, – Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, George Butterworth, and the Australian Percy Grainger.  It was interesting to… Read more

Whenever I am involved in performances of Edward Elgar’s ‘Dream of Gerontius’ or Frederick Delius’s ‘Mass of Life’ I cannot avoid the question of God.  If ever there is a ‘place’ where Music and Theology meet – this is it! And what a maelstrom of musical theology was swirling around Europe in the years before… Read more

With Charles Woodhouse’s ownership, my life took on yet another dimension.  I now enjoyed the experience of being played in The Queen’s Hall Orchestra, in the newly instigated London Promenade Concerts under ‘Old Timber’, Henry Wood, and sharing in the excitement of Charles being a founder-member of the London Symphony Orchestra. (‘Old Timber’ – Henry… Read more