Introduction
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford had to wait five resolute years to hear his Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor played in public, a disappointment bound up with the tragedy of the ‘Lusitania’.
THE Leeds Festival of 1910 caused a stir with the appearance of Sergei Rachmaninoff as soloist in his own Second Piano Concerto, adding the Russian to a long list of overseas composers brought to England by the conductor, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford.
Stanford composed his own Second Piano Concerto, in which Rachmaninoff’s influence is readily discernible, the following year. Hopes of an early American premiere were dashed, but Stanford looked forward to conducting it at the Norfolk Festival in Connecticut in 1915, during a visit to Yale to receive an honorary Doctorate. However, eight days before he was due to leave, a German torpedo brutally cancelled his passage on the Lusitania, costing over a thousand lives. The performance went ahead, but Stanford was not there to hear it.
Yet another public performance, as part of the Queen’s Hall Proms in 1915, was cancelled. Stanford’s patience was finally rewarded in Bournemouth on December 7th, 1916, although the concerto’s Proms premiere did not take place until 2008.
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Précis
Sergei Rachmaninoff inspired Sir Charles Villiers Stanford to compose a piano concerto in 1911, but a series of disappointments, including the cancellation of an American tour after the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, meant that it was five years before Stanford heard his concerto played in public, and almost a century before its Proms debut in 2008. (58 / 60 words)
Sergei Rachmaninoff inspired Sir Charles Villiers Stanford to compose a piano concerto in 1911, but a series of disappointments, including the cancellation of an American tour after the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, meant that it was five years before Stanford heard his concerto played in public, and almost a century before its Proms debut in 2008.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, besides, may, or, otherwise, ought, unless, whereas.
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Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 But. Cause. Conductor.
2 Another. Early. Follow.
3 Costing. Look. Place.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Add Vowels Find in Think and Speak
Make words by adding vowels to each group of consonants below. You may add as many vowels as you like before, between or after the consonants, but you may not add any consonants or change the order of those you have been given. See if you can beat our target of common words.
rly (5+1)
airily. early. eerily. relay. rely.
ruly.
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