Music For Busy Brains: September 2025
- Heather Worsfold
- Sep 15, 2025
- 3 min read
This blog is for people like me who work well to music. Normally it’s about sharing favourites, but this month I’ve set myself a challenge.
I’m lucky to play in several genuinely fantastic orchestras where I live. When I was in London, it felt like the capital must surely be the heart of amateur orchestral playing. Some of that is the prestige of the venues, but really it’s a numbers game: several million people rubbing along together inevitably produces a lot of fine musicians.
Yet when I moved to Norfolk, I was thrilled to find the standard every bit as high – and with the added bonus of a strong, welcoming community. The best move ever.
The only sticking point is the repertoire. I play regularly in one full-size symphony orchestra, but mostly in smaller groups – shrunk not for lack of talent, but because we tour the county playing in smallish churches. I’ve had to grit my teeth through endless Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert, music that sets my teeth on edge. The repeat marks don’t help: in concerts I’ll be turning pages for the leader, hit a repeat, and genuinely can’t remember if I’ve played the last three minutes once or twice already.
“Beethoven’s Eroica. My bête noire.”
This week an invitation landed for March (we plan well ahead): Beethoven’s Eroica. My bête noire, it sits at the top of my "never play again" list. I dodged it once this weekend, coincidentally for legit reasons, but I can’t skip this one too. I know my eyes will be watering, and not with joy.
So instead of just moaning (my usual position), I’m offering alternatives that are suitable for small chamber orchestras. Not a tortuous repeat mark in sight. This month’s playlist is all music for reduced forces – but still full of interest.
Dmitry Shostakovich – Chamber Symphony in C Minor
Essentially the 8th String Quartet expanded for string ensemble. Section leaders still step forward with solos, as if in the quartet, while the added strings warm the texture and soften the bleakness. And with the addition of “wardrobes” (double basses), there’s far more depth.
I don’t usually worry too much about the exact video choice, but this one is extraordinary string playing in anyone’s book – absolutely tons of welly.
Bohuslav Martinů – Toccata e due canzoni
With its orchestral piano (tucked into the percussion section rather than placed front and centre), this work achieves surprising scale. The deep piano strings act almost like an amplifier for the rest of the orchestra, giving the sound an unusual resonance.
George Enescu – Chamber Symphony, Op. 33
“Enescu, Chopin, Jim Morrison and Édith Piaf in one cemetery – now that would be a fun musical soirée.”
A discovery for me. Romanian by birth but heavily influenced by French style, Enescu was something of a prodigy: admitted to the Vienna Conservatoire at seven (the first non-Austrian granted a dispensation for age), he graduated at twelve. He’s buried in Paris’s Père Lachaise cemetery – sharing ghostly company with Chopin, Jim Morrison and Édith Piaf. That would be a fun musical soirée.
James MacMillan – Sinfonietta
A living Scottish composer. “Sinfonietta” sometimes means fewer players, sometimes just a compact symphonic form. Janáček’s Sinfonietta is vast – 47 different parts including banks of brass – but MacMillan is far more restrained. If at first it sounds like squeaky gates, give it time. His works have shape, purpose, and melodic lines that reward repeated listening.
We have so much great British music that amateur groups rarely touch. Sometimes it’s the cost of hiring the scores, which can be astonishing, and sometimes it’s simply that people forget it exists. Our musical tastes, like our food tastes, are very international. But we shouldn’t neglect our own composers.
As before, please get in touch if you love - or hate - anything on this list. When someone contacted me to say I'd introduced them to Stravinsky, I thought my birthdays and Christmases had all come at once! I'd love to hear from you.
Comments