Celebrating Brodsky

To mark the second Manchester International Violin Competition, an exhibition based on the papers of Adolph Brodsky, the Russian violinist and principal of the Royal Manchester College of Music, is now on display at the RNCM until 5 December.


Photograph of Brodsky, circa 1920s
(RNCM Archive ref AB/183)

Brodsky’s musical career as a performer and teacher is revealed through letters, photographs, programmes and other treasures from the archives, spanning the 1860s to the 1920s. The history of the College, and of music in Manchester, would not be the same without Brodsky’s influence and commitment.

Highlights from the exhibition include:

• Brodsky's annotated copy of the piano part of Tchaikovsky's violin concerto, op. 35, which he was the first to perform in public in December 1881.
• A photograph of the orchestra of the Royal Manchester College of Music, conducted by Brodsky, circa 1898.
• The programme for the first concert given by the Brodsky Quartet, accompanied by Brahms, at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, February 1884.

The competition runs from 26 November to 3 December at the RNCM and features a violin making marathon during which four of the country's finest violin makers will make a copy of the RNCM's 'Brodsky' Guadagnini violin.  For tickets to the concerto final on 3 December, go to http://www.rncm.ac.uk/.  Admission to all other competition events is free.  For further information about the competition, contact mivc@rncm.ac.uk or visit www.rncm.ac.uk/mivc.

The exhibition can be found on the lower concourse at the RNCM, outside the concert hall. The catalogue for the Adolph Brodsky papers is available to search online here. If you would like to use the archive, please contact the College Archivist and Records Manager, E archives@rncm.ac.uk

The Proud Bassoon



Concert programme,
Melos Ensemble, 1966


The latest accession to the RNCM archives, the papers of Bill Waterhouse (1931-2007), arrived in early September.  Mary Ann Davison has written in an earlier post about his contribution to the Collection of Historic Musical Instruments at the RNCM. 

After studying at the Royal College of Music, his long career as a professional bassoonist began with the Covent Garden Opera orchestra in 1953.  He joined the Royal Manchester College of Music (one of the RNCM's predecessors) in 1966 as professor of bassoon.

His extensive collection of concert programmes gives us an insight into the range of musical performances that he gave and the repertoire that he played, from the mid 1940s into the early 2000s.  There are large numbers of programmes for the London Symphony Orchestra (from 1958), the BBC Symphony Orchestra (from 1964) and the Melos Ensemble (from 1959), including

Concert programme, BBC
Symphony Orchestra, 1972/73

performances and tours overseas. He also performed as a soloist and gave master classes, lecture-recitals and workshops in many different countries. 

Letters from his friends and fellow musicians include the Dutch pianist Caecilia Andriessen; Canadian bassoonist and founder of the International Double Reed Society Gerald Corey; American composer and violinist Stanley Weiner; and the Swiss conductor Francis Travis.

The material received so far is only part of a larger collection and a small reflection of the work of a fine bassoonist.  We are grateful to Elisabeth Waterhouse, Bill's wife, for her kind donation.

Latest additions to the Carl Fuchs papers

Photograph of the orchestra at Ruhleben camp for British
prisoners of war, July 1916 [RNCM Archive Ref CF/2/10]

A further donation of material relating to the German cellist Carl Fuchs has been made to the RNCM Archives by his granddaughter Tessa.  This photograph was one of the more unexpected items found as I catalogued the collection.  It was sent to Fuchs by the cellist WR Cooper, who is on the far right of the second row.  Fuchs was interned briefly at Ruhleben after the outbreak of the First World War.  Although he had settled in Manchester in 1888, he and his family were on holiday at his parents' home in Jugenheim in summer 1914.  The camp was housed in the racecourse at Ruhleben.  In his autobiography, Fuchs recalled living in a hayloft and dining in the grandstand.  Music formed a part of the life of the camp from its early days.




Postcard of Schloss Heiligenberg, Jugenheim
[RNCM Archives ref CF/1/41]

The Fuchs papers have been received in several instalments and a single, unified online catalogue has now been created.  This can be viewed here, by a quick search on 'CF' in the RefNo box.  The latest additions include correspondence, scrapbooks, concert programmes and cuttings, and a collection of annotated musical scores.  Fuchs has added programmes and cuttings to each score, allowing us to see when and where he performed each piece. 

Concert programme, Giessen Concert Society,
14 October 1917 [RNCM Archives Ref CF/4/22]

This programme, found in the score for David Popper's 'Mazurka I - For Bernhard Cossmann', op. 11 no. 3, shows how Fuchs was allowed to perform in Germany during the war.  After being released from Ruhleben in early 1915, he returned to live in Jugenheim.  He joined the orchestra of the Darmstadt Opera and also played in the Frankfurt Museum Orchestra.  He was given permission to return to his family in England in March 1919.

 

That Day We Sang

Vocal exercises for children, by Walter Carroll
(RNCM Archive ref Carroll/WC/8)

To celebrate the opening of That Day We Sang, Victoria Wood’s new production for the Manchester International Festival, an exhibition based on the Walter and Ida Carroll papers held in the RNCM Archives will take place at the RNCM during July and August.  The Carroll collection was used during the research for the musical.

The exhibition pieces together the story of Manchester Elementary Schools’ Choir and its collaboration with the Hallé Orchestra in 1929, by looking at Walter Carroll’s contribution to the musical life of Manchester.

Carroll is best known as a composer of piano music for children.  He held several teaching posts at the University of Manchester and the Royal Manchester College of Music, before becoming Music Adviser for the City of Manchester Education Committee.  Until his retirement in 1934, he devoted his career to the reform of music teaching in Manchester schools. 

One of Carroll’s achievements was to create a successful school children’s choir, which famously performed with the Hallé Orchestra at the Free Trade Hall on 4 March 1929.  Taking this event as her inspiration, Victoria Wood's new musical tells two stories: that of the children of 1929, eagerly gearing up for their big day, and moving forward to 1969, that of Tubby and Enid, who, now somewhat older, are trying to reconnect with who they were then, and who they could be now. 

That Day We Sang will feature a new Manchester Children’s Choir formed especially for the occasion, and the Hallé Youth Orchestra.  It runs from 6 to 17 July at the Opera House in Manchester.  For tickets visit http://www.mif.co.uk/. 

The exhibition can be found on the lower concourse at the RNCM, outside the concert hall.  The catalogue for the Walter and Ida Carroll papers is available to search online here.  If you would like to use the archive, please contact the College Archivist and Records Manager, E archives@rncm.ac.uk

Grieg in Manchester

Nina and Edvard Grieg, dated 1906
(RNCM Archive ref AB/211)

Manchester Camerata will be performing two concerts in the RNCM Concert Hall this weekend, 21 -22 May. Linked by the music of Beethoven, the concerts feature students from the RNCM's conducting courses. On Saturday, the programme includes Two Elegiac Melodies Op 34, by Edvard Grieg.  Grieg and his wife Nina became friends of Adolph Brodsky and his wife Anna after meeting in Leipzig in the 1880s.

As the second Principal of the Royal Manchester College of Music, Brodsky's papers are held in the RNCM Archives. Correspondence between the friends dates from 1890 and continues with Anna's sister Olga even after the deaths of the Brodskys in 1929. The letters are in German except for those written by Nina during the First World War, which are in English. There are about thirty letters from Edvard to Adolph and about a hundred from Nina to Anna.

When Grieg visited Manchester in November 1897, he stayed with the Brodskys.  One of his letters to Anna gives a flavour of their relationship:

"We arrive on Wednesday 24th [November] at 2.30 and will go direct to 41 Acomb Street. And may I ask straight away, Frau Brodsky, if I can have at 4 o’clock a beefsteak (underdone!). I know this is impudent, and you see for yourself that you should have let us stay in a hotel. But before a concert you must not be offended if I am very strict about my food. It is absolutely necessary. The concert is at 7.30 and I must rest beforehand. And there is one more thing you must permit: Bechsteins are sending a pianino; will you please have it put into my room… As soon as I arrive I intend to exercise my fingers a little in my room, so I should be grateful for a fairly warm room. And now I will leave you in peace!" (RNCM Archive ref. AB/587)

The online catalogue for the Brodsky papers can be searched here.