Classes in Australia, Spring 2017
At ANAM, in Melbourne.
At the Sydney Conservatorium of Music
During the Berlin Philharmonic’s London Residency in February 2015 we were delighted to sit-in a rehearsal of Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, and back at the Royal College of Music we were treated to masterclasses given by Wieland Welzel and Raphael Haeger.
Wieland Welzel and Jan Schlichte.
Wieland Welzel with RCM percussion students
Raphael Haeger
In rehearsal
Helsinki, 1 September 2013
2nd timpani Scott Bywater. Percussion Glyn Matthews, Ben Hoffnung, Richard Horne.
1st Movement
2nd Movement
3rd Movement
4th Movement
5th Movement
Pete Woods and I recently visited Edinburgh University Instrument Museum. They have an enormous collection, including some weird and wonderful timpani and percussion instruments, the like of which we had never seen before. We are very grateful to the Curator, Dr Jenny Nex, for showing us around. Both drums below were made by George Potter, we estimate at the end of the 1800s. We suspect that their tuning mechanisms, although beautifully engineered and manufactured, actually weren’t that succesful due to the difficulty of spreading the tension evenly all the way around the drum. Hence these types of designs fell out of fashion quite quickly.
Here are some photos from my talk on the history and development of timpani at the 2012 Festival. Timpani were generously loaned by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Ben Hoffnung, Bill Lockhart, Sarah Stuart and Julian Fairbank / Majestic Percussion. Photos by Chris Christodoulou.
Filmed at Théâtre du Champs Elysées, Paris.
Filmed at Théâtre du Champs Elysées, Paris.
Baden Baden, 2004
Barbican Hall, 2006
This film shows the Potter’s workshop in West Street, near Leicester Square in London. Pete Woods (once again of Henry Potter’s) began his apprenticeship here in 1968 and the men shown in this film were his major influences. The expertise that led Sam Potter to found the company using his son’s name in 1810 has been passed down in just six generations.
With many thanks to the photographers and film makers who have allowed me to use their work; Stephen Tasker, Chris Christodolou (RCM), Tommy Pearson, Monika Rittershaus (Berliner Philharmoniker), Will Schofield, Glyn Matthews, Angus Bremner (SCO) and Zen Grisdale.