u3a

Wellingborough & District

Music Appreciation

Do you enjoy listening to and talking about music? If you do the Music Appreciation group is the group for you.

About Us: The majority of the music we play is classical, however, we are also pleased to listen to music of any genre; Jazz, Theatre and Film, American Songbook, Rock, Blues, Soul, Country and Western and even Pop music from the 50's to the present day all make their appearances.

There will be some pieces or styles of music that you would not normally consider to be your thing, but that's the idea, to come along and listen to the unfamiliar along with the well known. Who knows, you might find that you enjoy the music you would normally shy away from as much as you do your usual listening fare.

Give us a try, we don't bite. At some meetings members will have been invited or have volunteered to put together and present their own programmes on themes of their choice. For other meetings members are asked to bring in a selection of cds with suggestions of which tracks they would like played (we have own micro hifi cd/cassette player).

We meet on the 2nd Monday of the month between 2pm and 4pm at the Old Grammarians Club, 46 Oxford Street. Wellingborough, NN8 4JH.
There is a levy of £3 per head to cover the cost of room hire, tea, coffee and biscuits.

If having read this far you are still interested, please contact the Groups Co-Ordinator using the form below.

Coming Up:

8th June. John C
13th July. John P

What We've Been Listening To:

11th May 2026. Jo presented a programme that included Sibelius's Karelia Suite, Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No 5, Malcolm Arnolds's Padstow Lifeboat. Others included were Bizet's Pearl Fishers, Brahms's Lullaby and Goin' Home taken from Dvorak's Symphony No 9. Great choices.

13th April 2026. Nik pieces by Couperin, Lully and Stanford. We also heard Schubert's Winterreise, Beethoven's Piano Sonata No 15 Op 28 and Handel's Renaldo. Puccini's Turandot made an appearance but not Nessun Dorma; good to hear something different!

9th February 2026. David's choices ranged from Big Bands such as Nat Gonella, Irish Folk with Richie Remo, Blues with Paul lamb and Country with Patsy Cline and Connie Hall. Classical included the Three tenors, Eric Satie's Gymnopede No. 1, Saint-Saens Aquarium. and Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21. We also had some Pan Pipes and Pink Floyd.

13th January 2026. "Christmas" Lunch and a selection of music

10th November 2025 Anthony treated us to an eclectic select of music including excerpts from Schubert's Winterreise, Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto, Bach's St. Matthew's Passion and choral woks from Elgar and Faure. We also heard songs by Clara Schumann and Edith Piaf, an arrangement of Purcell's When I Am Laid In Earth by the David Rees-Williams Trio and early recordings by Duke Ellington.

13th October 2025. My choices this month. We heard from Phil Harris with "Buddy can you spare a dime", Fats Waller with "Gunna write myself a letter", and Sarah Vaughan. a selection from West Side Story, and Pictures at an Exhibition. Also heard from Frank Sinatra, Claire Teal, Joyce Di Donato and Dame Janet Baker.

8th September 2025. We marked the passing of two greats this month. Alfred Brendel and Cleo Laine. We heard Alfred playing Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 32 and Cleo singing "Riding High". Paul Robeson, Claire Teal, The Kinks and Ray Charles made appearances. We also heard from Beethoven's 7th Symphony and Haydn's String Quartet Op 77 No. 1.

11th August 2025. Pat and Adrian presented their selection on the theme of Sounds of Summer. We heard from Cliff Richard, Billy Fury and the Bay City Rollers with "Summer Holiday", "In Summer" and "Summer Love Sensation". Also Pink Floyd with "Grantchester Meadows" and "Fat Old Sun". Led Zeppelin gave us "Down By The Seaside" and "The Rain Song". Classical pieces included Delius's "A Song For Summer", Vivaldi's "summer" from "The Four Seasons" and the "Thunderstorm" from Beethoven's 6th Symphony.

14th July 2025: Nik's selection included Ziggy Stardust, Sound of Music, Steeleye Span and The Clash. Other pieces included the Queen of the Night's Aria from Die Zauberflote, Elgar's Where Corals Lie, Poulenc's Oboe Sonata, Verdi's Macbeth, and Shostakovich's Preludes and Fugues. A very rounded and enjoyable programme.

9th June 2025: Kohn gave us an eclectic mix including Grieg's "Morning", the "Flower Song" from Bizet's Carmen", "Jupiter" from Holst's "The Planets" and "Bridal March" from Wagner's "Lohengrin". We also heard from Simon and Garfunkel, The Bee Gees, the Priests and Duke Ellington.

12th May 2025: David played some Country Music with Faron Young, Patsy Cline, Shania Twain and Loretta Lynn. Big bands included Carroll Gibbons, Ivy Benson and Geraldo. Domingo, Pavarotti, Enya, Helen Shapiro, Mary Wells, Clodagh Rogers also made appearances.

14th April 2025: Jo brought along Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 5, Grieg's Norwegian Bridal Procession and Mendelsohn's Symphony No 4. Lighter works included Kenny Ball with Midnight in Moscow, Joe Loss's Wheels Cha Cha, Scott Joplin's Kismet and the Brighouse and Rastrick's Band playing the Floral Dance. Jo's programme concluded with Recording of bird song accompanied by guitar.

10th March 2025: Josephine gave us a lovely selection of music today. The Three Tenors appeared along with Chopin's Waltz in C Sharp Minor and John Fields Nocturne No 1. Excerpts from G & S's HMS Pinafore, Grieg's Peer Gynt, Sondhiem's A Little Night Music and Lloyd-Weber's Phantom also made appearances. On the lighter side we had Scottish songs from the Tara Singers, Louis Armstrong singing La Vie En Rose, and Julie London with I'm Always True to You In My Fashion.

10th February 2025: Mary presented an eclectic select of music. Pieces included Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty, Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream, And Delius's La Calinda from his opera Koanga. we also heard La Vie en Rose from Edith Piaf, Come Fly With Me from Frank Sinatra, La Mer from Charles Trennet and Songs of the Auvergne by Canteloube.

Status:Active, open to new members
Leader:
When: Monthly on Monday afternoons 2:00 pm-4:00 pm
2nd Monday
Cost: £3