Have you ever wanted to know more about classical music but felt too intimidated to ask? Have you ever been at a concert and enjoyed it, but felt like you didn't totally know what was going on?
Or, are you a classical music enthusiast who wants to know more about your favourite works, or explore some pieces you haven't heard before?
Each session is independent so why not try one out?
Music Appreciation (Friday @Semitone)
Advanced Music Appreciation (Wednesday online)
Semitone's music appreciation classes might be for you. It's informed, but informal; complete but casual. If you want to develop a better appreciation of classical music, then you have to listen to it. Peter introduces each piece by saying something about the composer's place in the development of music, how the piece came to be written and what to listen out for before we listen to it. We listen together, and share our own reactions to each piece.
For any questions about music appreciation classes, please email info@semitonestudios.com or ring 07715 643110.
Music Appreciation
This course is for everyone - you needn't have any prior knowledge of classical music in order to fully enjoy this course.
Current Session
Day/Time/Location:
Friday/10:30am-12pm/@Semitone Studios
Cost: £84 for all twelve sessions or £8 for each individual session.
(If the cost is a hardship, please let us know and you may pay what you can afford.)
The programme for the second quarter of 2026 introduces as usual a varied selection of works from the last 300 years or so.
Friday 10 April: Joseph Haydn, Symphony No 90 in C major, written in 1788 in response to a commission for Paris and with one of Hadyn's joke endings.
Friday 17 April: Ludwig van Beethoven, String Quartet in D major, Opus 18, No 3, which is the first string quartet that Beethoven composed, written between 1788 and 1800 and published in 1801.
Friday 24 April: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, three overtures: Midsummer Night’s Dream, Opus 21, written when he was seventeen, the Hebrides Overture, Opus 26 and Ruy Blas, Opus 95.
Friday 1 May: Vincent D’Indy, Symphony on a French Mountain Air, Opus 21, which appears to be his only work which is now remembered although he did write three other numbered symphonies.
Friday 8 May: Antonín Dvořák, Symphony No 1 in C minor The Bells of Zlonice, which he wrote in1865 but never heard and lost the score which did eventually turn up and had its première in 1936.
Friday 15 May: Sergei Prokofiev, Symphony No 7 in C sharp minor, Opus 131, his last completed major work, written for the Soviet Children’s Radio Division.
Friday 22 May: Johann Sebastian Bach, BWV 61 and Georg Philipp Telemann, TWV 1:1178, two cantatas using the same cantata libretto based on the chorale Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland.
Friday 29 May: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Symphony No 29 in A major, K.201, written when he was eighteen and regarded as a turning point in his development as a composer.
Friday 5 June: Johannes Brahms, Piano Quartet No 3 in C minor, Opus 60, completed in 1875 but written over a period of about twenty years inspired by his feelings for Clara Schumann.
Friday 12 June: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Manfred Symphony in B minor, Opus 58, based on Byron’s poem and written between the fourth and fifth symphonies.
Friday 19 June: Lili Boulanger, Faust et Hélène, which won the composer the Prix de Rome in 1913, five years before she died aged 24.
Friday 26 June: Alan Hovhaness, Symphony No 50, Mount St Helens, Opus 360, written in 1981-2 as a result of a commission to commemorate the eruption of Mount St Helens in May 1980.
Advanced Music Appreciation
This course is for listeners who have at least basic knowledge of classical music - terminology, form, etc. Please enquire if you are unsure.
These Classes will resume in April 2026
Day/Time/Location: Wednesday/2:00pm-4:00pm/Online via Zoom
Cost: £88 for all eight sessions or £13 for an individual session.
(If the cost is a hardship, please let us know and you may pay what you can afford.)
These online sessions set out to explore a range of classical music composed over the past three hundred years or so, including music in a variety of genres: orchestral, instrumental, choral and songs.
The aim to is to include some well-known pieces but also to explore less familiar repertoire; there is such a wealth of music that we do not normally hear.
The theme for each course is chosen to provide a framework for this. Pieces will be introduced and then we will listen to them and share reactions.
This short course of eight sessions will explore the music which was new in eight particular years, thirty years apart, possibly written that year or first performed in that year. We will probably listen to some music other than those listed below which are just given to provide context.
Wednesday 22 April: 1746 when Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach wrote two harpsichord concertos, Georg Frederic Handel wrote a concerto which became the overture to the Music for the Royal Fireworks and Joseph Haydn was a teenage chorister at St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna.
Wednesday 29 April: 1776 when Joseph Haydn wrote his Symphony No 61, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote his Haffner Serenade, Luigi Boccherini wrote six string quintets, the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre hosted its first opera season, and Ludwig van Beethoven was beginning his music lessons.
Wednesday 6 May: 1806 when Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his fourth symphony, his fourth piano concerto, his violin concerto and the Razumovsky string quartets, Carl Maria von Weber wrote his
horn corcertino and Gioachino Rossini age 14 was admitted to the new Bolgna Conservatory.
Wednesday 13 May: 1836 when Robert Schumann wrote his Fantasie in C, Felix Mendelssohn wrote his oratorio St Paul which had its English premiere in Liverpool, Richard Wagner for the
first time had an opera performed (disastrously) and married his first wife Minna.
Wednesday 20 May: 1866 when Pyotr Tchaikovsky wrote his first symphony Winter Dreams, Arthur Sullivan wrote his Irish Symphony, Bedřich Smetana’s opera The Bartered Bride had its première in Prague and Jacques Offenbach’s operetta La Vie Parisienne had its première in Paris.
Wednesday 27 May: 1896 when Antonín Dvořák’s cello concerto had its first performance in London, Jean Sibelius conducted the première of his Lemminkäinen Suite in Helsinki, Anton Bruckner died leaving his ninth symphony incomplete, Gustav Mahler completed his third symphony, Camille Saint-Säens his fifth piano concerto and Amy Beach her Gaelic Symphony.
Wednesday 3 June: 1926 when Dmitri Shostakovich’s first symphony was first performed in Leningrad, Leoš Janáček’s Sinfonietta in Prague, Jean Sibelius’s Tapiola in New York, Béla Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin in Cologne and Edgard Varèse’s Amériques in Philadelphia.
Wednesday 10 June: 1956 when Dmitri Shostakovich’s sixth string quartet was first performed in Leningrad, Michael’s Tippett’s piano concerto in Birmingham, Ralph Vaughan Williams’s eighth symphony in Manchester and there was the first Hoffnung Musical Festival of London.