Melancholy tones reflect each composer's circumstances

On that evening, the club's equipment officer was away, and John was in the hot seat, presenting a programme of music.

Happily, Jean Jarvis came to his rescue, and coped efficiently with the sophisticated mini-disc set up, so that the club could enjoy John's choice of music '˜In a Minor Key'.

John quoted the musicologist Anthony Hopkins: 'Music enables the listener to experience emotion on a higher plane than is normally felt in everyday life.'

The emotion evoked by music written in minor keys is sadness, but often a sense of tragic nobility alleviates its sombre message.

Not surprisingly, five of the eight composers whose music John played had themselves suffered tragic lives.

John began with Schubert's Piano Sonata in C min, no. 19, D958, one of Schubert's last three great sonatas which he never heard performed due to his early death.

The recording, dating from 1968, was of a great Schubert interpreter, Alfred Brendel.

This was followed by Robert Schumann's Cello Concerto in A min, op. 129, played almost with abandon by Jacqueline du Pre, with the New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Barenboim.

Its turbulent chords, bringing out the rich sound of the cello, surely were indicative of Schumann's deteriorating mental health in 1850, yet it also contains his most beautiful melodies.

The richest sound of all followed '“ Boris Christoff singing King Philip's aria '˜No, she never loved me' from Verdi's opera Don Carlos.

Then came a dramatic contrast '“ from the sobs of King Philip to the doleful clarinets in the hushed opening bars of Tchaikovsky's Symphony no. 5 in E min, op. 64, played by the Leipzig Gewandhaus conducted by Kurt Masur.

The Adagio movement of Beethoven's String Quartet in F, op 18, no 1, a lyrical aria from Handel's oratorio Theodora sung by the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and two movements of Gerals Finzi's great Concerto for Cello, op. 40, written when he knew that his death was imminent, were further examples of extremely moving music.

After thanking Jean Jarvis for assisting him so ably in playing all the right tracks, John closed his programme with the final two movements of Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, the March to the Scaffold and the Witches' Sabbath '“ the most spine-chilling yet exultant music and a great show-piece for orchestra.

In his vote of thanks the club's chairman, Eric Garner congratulated John for his skill in selecting music featuring instruments with the elegiac timbre (clarinets and cellos) required for melancholic themes.

The club's next meeting will be March 15, when James Jolly, editor of The Gramophone for many years, will be the guest speaker.

For further information contact secretary Maureen Wright on 01243 827358.