The Arts Society Bishop’s Stortford ready for ‘brilliance and emotional depth’ of Baroque music

Broadcaster, conductor and musician Sandy Burnett is the guest lecturer at October’s meeting of The Arts Society Bishop’s Stortford.

Each month member Mick Fitch reviews the latest talk and looks forward to the next subject for Indie readers.

He said: “Our next lecture by Sandy Burnett is called Misshapen Pearl: An Overview of the music of the Baroque.

“Starting in 1607 with Monteverdi’s opera Orfeo and ending in 1759 with the death of the great ‘English’ composer Handel, the Baroque period produced great music of brilliance and emotional depth.

“In his lecture, Sandy draws on his experience as a broadcaster, conductor and hands-on practical musician and includes hand-picked images, autograph scores and recorded musical illustrations with a special focus on the work of Johann Sebastian Bach.

“Our September lecture was by Toby Faber on the Imperial Easter Eggs of Carl Fabergé before the Russian Revolution.

“In a fascinating talk, Toby linked the gift of Fabergé eggs as Easter presents by the last two emperors of Russia to their wives to the history of the Romanovs before and during the Russian Revolution.

“The House of Fabergé was a jewellery company in Saint Petersburg and between 1885 and 1916, they made 50 jewelled eggs for the emperors to give as gifts.

“The eggs are mostly a few inches high and the only rules made by the emperors to Carl Fabergé,who supervised the manufacture, were that the present should be egg-shaped, that it should contain some surprise to delight its recipient and be different from its predecessor.

“Once Carl Fabergé had approved the initial design, the eggs were made by a team of craftspeople including Alma Pihl, the only female and one of the best known.

“The eggs range in style from traditional Russian to Art Nouveau. The materials used included gold, silver gilt, diamonds, pearls, white, red, green and opaque violet enamel, rock crystal etc.

“The ‘surprises’ when the eggs opened included a coronation coach in one egg, a train set in another, a mechanism in another which, when pressed, allowed a heart inside to open containing pictures of family members.

“Of the 50 eggs made, 44 are known to have survived. A scrap metal dealer in the American Mid West bought a gold ornament at a junk market for $14,000 intending to make a quick buck by melting it for the gold value, but he had overestimated the value.

“In desperation, he searched the internet and then realised he might have the egg the emperor had given to his wife in 1887.

“He approached Warski antique dealers in London who bought the egg for a client. No information on the sale amount was given by Warski, but Fabergé eggs have sold for many millions of pounds so keep looking for the other six!

“Come to our meetings and be entertained, enthralled and amazed.

The Arts Society Bishop’s Stortford, founded in 1976, meets monthly at South Mill Arts on the second Tuesday of the month, with coffee from 10am. The lecture starts at 10.40am. Visitors are welcome to attend for a suggested £7 donation.

To find out more see info@tasbs.org.uk.