Every semester for three nights Bill Cotte teaches music to the public in the Burke Mountain Room. It’s free for everyone and the public is invited to join. It’s about the history of music from the 20th century. This Monday will be the third part of the three night series.
In the second session, Cotte started the night by saying that he is going to talk more about Toscanini that night. He then talked about how they used to record these huge orchestras back in the beginning of the century with wax.
He also went into detail about the Victor Talking Machine Company. This was one of the first music players of its time. Many of the people in the audience had questions on how the recording worked and what was the difference between the recording disks. Cotte answered their questions on how they were recorded.
Then Cotte said “I would love to show you all one of Toscanini’s first recordings.” He then played to the class Beethoven’s 9th Symphony performed by Toscanini.
As he started to play the music many of the people in the audience sat back in their chairs and let the music calm them and take them away.
Bob Ketchum, a resident from Sheffield, VT has come to the past two sessions and enjoys it greatly. “I come every week for this it is an asset for the community,” he said. He travels just to hear what Cotte has to teach. “We make the long drive from Sheffield Heights just to come see this, no matter what the weather conditions are.”
Cotte played Toscanini orchestrating Richard Wagner’s pieces Euryanthe Overture and Lohengrin. He went into great detail about Toscanini and his lifestyle and what he did with the theater.
Afterwards Cotte had the following to say about this public classroom: “I love having the public indulge in the class room because people love to come and learn about the great composers.”
I learned a lot from this music session. It’s a great way to learn about great composers. The next class is this Monday, November 15 at 7:00pm in the Burke Mountain Room.
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