About the 2025 Annual Concert
Recently, we were asked to give performance of works by Matyas Seiber (1905 -1960) for the anniversary of his birth and consequently todays programme features three works by him. Seiber was an eclectic composer, ranging from jazz to serious experimental 12-tone music and everything in between. We selected some of his more easily accessible works: a couple pieces demonstrating his Hungarian roots and his less serious side (with Evening in the Puszta, Ilonka and the Dancing Teddy Bear). Jewish émigrés, like Seiber, contributed a lot to the light music repertoire as today’s programme demonstrates with three other numbers by 1st or 2nd generation émigrés: Dardanella by Felix Bernard (1897-1944), Tout est Permis quand on Rêve by Werner Heyman(1896-1961) and Who? by Jerome Kern 1885-1945).
Much light music was first conceived for the stage or the cinema. Shows travelled from Broadway to the West End and vice versa and when tunes became popular, palm court orchestras adopted them. Some examples of this in the programme are ‘Tout est Permis quand on Rêve’, ‘Who ?’ and ‘Way Down Yonder’
Light music was universal in the western world as I hope our programme demonstrates and British composers played a big role. We selected some less familiar works of the prominent British composers of the genre for today’s concert with Haydn Wood’s (1882-1959) Love in Arcady, Clive Richardson’s (1909-1998) Sleepy Melody, and Eric Jupp’s (1922-2003) Baion de Santos. Other nationalities represented today are Italy with Cesare Bixio’s (1896-1978) Parlami D’amore, Mariu. Norway with Konrad Grimstad’s (1889-1980) Vestlands Bondstemma and Carlos Gardel (1890-1935) - who wrote Por Una Cabeza was French-Argentinian.
Because we tend to go abroad for a week of rehearsals in the summer, we look for light music associated with the country we are visiting. Last year took us to Catalonia and in preparation for our trip we searched for Catalonian composers and so discovered Enrique Santeugini (1894-1978), who was born in Ripoll, where we actually gave a concert. We will start today with his best know opus, Para Ti Rio Rita but surprisingly, it was not at all well known in Catalonia. In a couple of months, we are off to Denmark and we have been trying out some pieces by Jacob Gade (1879- 1963) renowned for his tango ‘Jealousie’. We hope to find a piece the Danes are not too familiar with. Perhaps his Illusions will fit the bill.
About Mátyás Seiber
Matyás Seiber, born in Hungary in 1905, clearly enjoyed composing light music but kept two distinct professional identities. He chose to use G.S. Mathis as the name for the publication of his lighter music. He studied at the Budapest Music Academy under Zoltan Kodaly and like many Hungarian composers at the time, he collected folk music and used it in his compositions. He was also much influenced by jazz and was appointed as the world’s first professor in jazz at the University of Berlin. When the Weimar republic came to an end and interest in jazz faded, he moved to Frankfurt and with the introduction of the Nazi racial laws in 1933 he lost his professional post in Frankfort because he was part Jewish.
He then travelled widely and spoke many languages, eventually settling in London in 1935. Hundreds of émigré musicians arrived on these shores around the same time and professional opportunities were scarce. Seiber initially made a living by arranging music and teaching the accordion. Eventually he was asked to join the staff at Morley College at the invitation of Michael Tippett. Several of his pupils became well known modernist composers but Seiber himself wrote music using the twelve-tone technique as well as many other genres. He composed chamber music, choral works and wrote music for many films. The reason that his music is not better known today is probably because the BBC banned the broadcast of German composers for some years after the war and because Seiber’s professional career took off in Germany broadcasting his music was probably avoided on a false presumption.
Not until the 1950 did he receive widespread international recognition. He was visiting Budapest in the autumn of 1956 and was tipped-off just in time to avoid the Soviet invasion. A few years later he died in a road traffic accident while on a conducting tour in South Africa.
Café Bonheur – our 6th CD
Our last CD was recorded in tragic circumstances: Our flautist, Ana Arnold, who chose the name for the CD, died in a road traffic accident on her way to the studio that she had booked for us in France. On the first day of what was supposed to have been a happy week of music making, we were therefore confronted by the loss of a dear friend and central character of the orchestra. Miraculously, we were able to record a CD after all because a local flautist came forward to help us out and we felt that Ana would have wanted us to make use of this offer. Concentrating on the music helped us to get through that difficult week and we decided to dedicate the CD to Ana’s memory.
Ana’s exceptional musical skills were obvious from an early age. she combined great technical instrumental skill with a love for the music. Her sparkling personality was able to enthuse any audience. She started playing the flute aged six and with two friends from high school she formed a flute trio. Her obvious talent was confirmed when they won a national chamber music competition. After graduating from Trinity, Ana began her freelance career in London with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the London Mozart Players.
Looking for a challenge, she then took herself to Kenya, teaching music at a boys’ school in a slum area of Nairobi. She soon became prominent in Nairobi’s cultural life and was appointed as the youngest and first female conductor of the Nairobi Symphony Orchestra. During this time, she met Rosi Ward, Aspidistra’s pianist, who happened to be teaching in Kenya as well and a member of that Orchestra.
Ana greatly admired James Galway and in 2019 was selected to take part in one of his masterclasses. She was also an exceptional teacher - her book ‘Flute Perfect’ explained everything in an amusing, easy-to-understand way for young beginners and got a 100% 5-star review on Amazon.
In 2020, Ana decided to join the RAF Reserves as a musician and was the first female reservist ever to take part in the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. The officer in charge of music said that in thirty years of service, he had never come across anyone who had made such a huge impression in such a short time as Ana.
You can listen to Ana playing with Aspidistra in the lockdown videos she produced via the link on our home page but sadly not on Café Bonheur.
Musical Heritage - not heresy
Palm Court Music, once the background music in Grand Hotels and department stores, has disappeared from our lives. In the early years of broadcasting, the BBC championed it. They commissioned many works and broadcast programmes such as ‘The Palm Court Hour’ and ‘Grand Hotel’, while ‘Housewife’s Choice’ was full of it. However, the BBC gradually lost interest in this type of music and stopped broadcasting it. They claim it was because of lack of public interest but our experience suggests they were misinformed.
With reorganisation of their archives, publishers discarded the less profitable works and much light music has been lost forever, particularly when smaller publishing houses were taken over by multi-nationals. The well organised Boosey and Hawkes archive in Regent Street used to be a wonderful source of material for us and we were welcome to browse through the archive before making a purchase. Not anymore. Officially, the archive has been moved to Germany but typically, the light music has vanished.
The younger generation has no longer any idea what Palm Court Music is. Funding for music education has been steadily squeezed and even professional music students will rarely be aware of this part of our musical heritage. Aspidistra aims to keep this heritage alive, not just by performing rarely heard archive material but also through music tuition. In fact, most of the members of the orchestra are involved in music education.