Edito de Bach: Gigue: AllegroJeremy Polmear talks to Catherine Smith about the group, and about the music on these CDs The Sheba Sound was founded in 1975 by Catherine Smith, and ran for an impressive 22 years. I asked her how it came about. "I was a freelance oboist working in London, and, to be honest, I felt that life was getting a bit repetitive. I needed a challenge, I needed to break out of the orchestral rut. I love making experiments, and exploring new areas of life. "My starting point for the new group was two oboes, bassoon and harpsichord to play trio sonatas. I approached the oboist Deirdre Lind and the bassoonist Deirdre Dundas-Grant because they had both played in the BBC Concert Orchestra, and therefore had experience in playing all kinds of music. Neil Black [a prominent London oboist] suggested I contact the harpsichordist Harold Lester, who not only played early music with Alfred Deller, but contemporary music with Cathy Berberian and the London Sinfonietta. Our horizons were limitless. The name of the group reflects this - 'Sheba', in reference to the best-known baroque piece for two oboes, 'The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba' by Handel, - and 'Sound', being the kind of name you wouldn't use in strictly classical circles. All future members of the group shared this eclectic experience of musical styles. I am particularly grateful to the first members, who made financial sacrifices until we had established ourselves. "As I wanted the group to be unique in every respect, I decided that we would play, if possible, unpublished Baroque music, so I spent hours and hours in libraries looking for interesting scores. Harold Lester brought his extensive knowledge of early harpsichord music, and arranged some of it; and I also wanted a more jazzy arranger. Brian Kay of the King's Singers suggested Gordon Langford, who had written beautifully for them; he wrote a Folk Song Suite for us [Kaleidoscope CD, tracks 15 -19], the first of many arrangements. Our subsequent commissions were not only contemporary serious music, but also jazz and rock. "I decided that our presentation was very important. Our dresses were glamorous, shot silk, in bright reds, and the men had cummerbunds to match. Each work was introduced by a member of the group, which was unusual at that time. We commissioned special music stands from the furniture department of the Royal College of Art, and draped the furniture on the platform in red velvet. "We played all over the UK, in concert halls, at music clubs and festivals, and we did regular London concerts at the Wigmore Hall. One was recorded, and is the source of several tracks on these CDs. We often worked with well-known actors such as Gabriel Woolf [The Bassoon Song, Kaleidoscope CD, track 7], Derek Jacobi, Nicolas Parsons and Spike Milligan, on whose TV programmes we appeared. We did lots of Children's Concerts too, at which the greatest success was a special story, The Key to the Zoo, written by humourist Miles Kington, with music by Stephen Oliver. In the story we each became an animal character, with an appropriate hat. "We toured abroad too, especially in Germany, Italy and Arabia. In Italy they preferred to have a singer with the group, and we took people such as the contralto Margaret Cable and the tenor Christopher Underwood. We also played in Holland, and on TV in Flanders. We broadcast in the UK too - on the BBC music channel Radio 3, but I was also on the talk channel Radio 4, on 'Woman's Hour'. At the time I had three children under eight as well as my career - quite a new thing back in 1975 - and this created quite a lot of interest among the listeners, who then wanted to know what our music sounded like. This led to the BBC financing an LP, many of whose tracks appear here."