It is friendship that keeps the Leonard Salzedo Society together. This heartening thought came to me as I looked around the Society AGM in November. A network of friends in Nottingham, a wider network of friends in other parts of the country, and last but not least, cousins on both sides of the family who are also friends.

Ben Costello

One of the key friends of the Society is musician Ben Costello, who is copying Leonard’s scores into the Sibelius program so they are available digitally. (Email me if you want more information about Leonard’s scores).

2026 Concert Thames Concert Series

As part of his vast portfolio of work, Ben is Artistic director of the Thames Concert Series, whose 2026/7 season in Surbiton, Surrey, will include the Halcyon Quartet playing Leonard’s 5^th String Quartet on 12^th September 2026. Put the date in your diary now and more information will follow.

Family friends of many years’ standing

Many friends were also friends of my parents. Family friends Patricia Braun, a benefactor of the Society, and her late husband John Cromer Braun, Leonard’s long-time collaborator (read more about their collaboration in this post), are pictured above with Leonard.

Pat appears in the 2021 film Leonard Salzedo A Life Composed in Music along with longtime friends Leslie Howard pianist and musicologist who premiered some of my father’s pieces; Monica Ferguson, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of the Stables, and Alison Young, Head of Programming and Producing at the Stables. As well as promoting, playing and enjoying my father’s music, over the years they have all shared many wonderful get-togethers at my parents’ home. More on those friendships in a later post.

Because this New Year’s post and the next few are dedicated to friendship.

Here are some of the friendships from his youth that my father describes in his autobiography. They include Wartime stories, very relevant to today, and remind us of the power and tenacity of friendship.

Charlie Spriggins

Leonard writes: ‘In the early 1930s my father found me a new violin teacher, Norah Freeley, who had studied with the famous English violinist John Dunn. Her husband Alfred Reynolds, a retired actor and theatrical manager, ran the business side of their Music School, while Miss Freeley devoted herself to teaching.  Mr Reynolds had a dry sense of humour and often quoted from Shakespeare and Dickens.  He had nicknames for many of his pupils and friends and always called me ‘Charlie Spriggins’!’

(CS note: Miss Freeley and Mr Reynolds were two of the guests at my parents’ wedding, read the post about that here)

The Menges family

‘After about eight years as a pupil of Norah Freeley, I went to study at the School run by Madam Menges, as we always called her. Kate Menges, nee Wicherley, was born in Dalston in about 1870.  She studied the violin with Joseph Joachim in Berlin and married one of her fellow students George Menges.  They came to live in England and teach the violin and, in 1909, went to St Petersburg to study with Leopold Auer.  She described to me the day, in 1910, when a boy of nine came and played Paganini’s 24^th Caprice to Leopold Auer with a complete mastery of the violin.  It was Jascha Heifetz.  Auer was amazed at such talent in so young a person. Back in London both the Menges carried on teaching, and Madam Menges continued the School after her husband died in 1936. The Menges family became very important to me.’

(CS Note: Madam Menges’ daughter Isolde also taught my father at the Royal College of Music. And Madam Menges was a founder of the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra)

Desmond Mitchell

‘Among Madam Menges’ fellow students was Desmond Mitchell from Bexhill.  Desmond and I became very good friends, and we both went on to be students at the Royal College of Music. He was called up during World War II and became a rear gunner in the RAF. He was killed when his plane was shot down over Germany.  He had a great talent and I shall always remember him with affection.’

Leo Roth

‘In the 1930s Jewish refugees began arriving in this country and many of them found places to live in Jewish homes near us in Stamford Hill.  Among these were a young Austrian brother and sister, Leo and Irma Roth.  Their parents had not been able to get to England but they did escape and lived for some years in Shanghai.  Leo, who was a few months younger than me, had a marvellous natural tenor voice.  We became friends and I soon began accompanying him in various operatic arias. Our friendship lasted our lifetimes, although we were separated from each other for several years because of the War. This is what happened to Leo.

The authorities suspected that Nazi spies had been planted among the Jewish refugees.  As a result all refugees were interrogated and those who didn’t convince the authorities were interned.  Leo was very nervous about his interrogation.  We tried to reassure him that he was safe but unfortunately they decided he had to be interned (although Irma didn’t).   He was sent with many others to Canada and then Australia.  He told me that the conditions on the boat were appalling and they were very badly treated by the British troops who were guarding them.

After the War Leo Roth returned to Austria and became a cantor in a synagogue in Vienna.  Towards the end of the 1940s he moved to Berlin to sing in a synagogue there, where he met and married Hertl Muller.  She was not Jewish but had provided a ‘safe house’, and had helped many Jews to escape from Germany before the War.’

The warmth and encouragement of friendship remains a steady flame in a changing and challenging world.

Caroline Salzedo

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