Gresham College Lectures

The most outrageous Russian modernist composers of the 1920s were Dmitry Shostakovich in Leningrad, and Alexander Mosolov in Moscow. They were not merely following European avant-garde trends, and their work was genuinely pioneering. Russian culture was undergoing a vigorous renewal at the time, and these composers worked across several arts: Shostakovich’s absurdist opera The Nose extends the theatrical innovations of the celebrated theatre director Vsevolod Meyerhold, while Mosolov’s 'machine music' embodies many constructivist ideas of visual artists and filmmakers. A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/modernism-rampant Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lecture

It’s usually said that Protestant and evangelical Christians made very little missionary effort in the 16th-18th centuries. In fact, there was much more than we remember. But they used strategies that look very alien to modern eyes: whether trying to spread ‘civilisation’ as a prerequisite for conversion, or seeing these efforts as part of a global apocalyptic conflict. This lecture will introduce this series about these early missionary projects; why they mostly failed; and why they still matter. A lecture by Alec Ryrie The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/protestant-failure Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website. Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

This lecture will explore the essentials of financial planning. What are the different ways to save and invest, such as bank accounts, bonds, shares, and mutual funds, and how do they differ in returns and risk? What does owning bonds and shares give you, both in normal times and in bankruptcy? We’ll explore how both inflation and taxes erode investment returns – and how to invest in a tax-efficient manner. A lecture by Alex Edmans The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/save-invest Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website. Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Three new missions arrived at Mars in February 2021, to look at weather, water and life. This lecture looks at new results from the UAE’s Hope mission, China’s Tianwen-1 and NASA’s Perseverance. It will also look at the prospects for the ESA-Russia Rosalind Franklin rover to be launched next year arriving on 10 June 2023. At this exciting time, will we soon be able to answer the greatest scientific question: are we alone in the Universe? A lecture by Andrew Coates The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mars-2021 Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website. Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://w

In 1623, Charles I (as heir to the throne) made a secret and hazardous trip to Madrid to win the hand of a Spanish princess. For eight months he was the guest of the Spanish king, Philip IV, living in the Alcazar of Madrid. The opportunities to study art, architecture and court ceremonial made a profound impact on the 23-year-old Charles, and it influenced his own taste when two years later he inherited the thrones of England and Scotland. A lecture by Simon Thurley CBE The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/spanish-culture Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website. Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: h

The Common Law was conceived as a thing comprising beautiful and simple principles. Has English law and procedure lost its way? Where are we to go in the 21st Century? A lecture by The Rt Hon Lord Justice Haddon-Cave The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/law-complexity Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website. Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Due to the Duke of Marlborough‘s military genius and the crush that Queen Anne had on his wife, the duchess, the Marlboroughs were presented with two of the greatest houses of the age. Blenheim and Marlborough House encapsulate the architectural rivalries and ambitions of patrons and architects illuminating the febrile atmosphere of the last days of the Stuart dynasty. A lecture by Simon Thurley CBE The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/marlborough-mansions Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website. Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.ins

Nicholas Kenyon looks back at the development of one of the most distinctive buildings of our time, shedding new light on its origins, looking at the changes across the years, and considers the thinking that will guide its renewal for the next 40 years. A lecture by Sir Nicholas Kenyon CBE The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/thomas-gresham-21 Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website. Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

England’s Reformation was supposed to bind the nation into a single ‘Church of England’. In fact the country was shattered into a kaleidoscope of religious variety. Amid the confusion, a few English people embraced radical possibilities: mystics turned religion into an allegory, separatists created democratic, self-governing communes, utopians explored ideas ranging from pacifism to full-blown revolution. This lecture traces how this radical edge of the English Reformation helped shape some of the most apparently secular aspects of the modern world. A lecture by Alec Ryrie The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/radical-reformation Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or downloa

The Jewish communities of London have a rich musical-liturgical history, stretching back to the mid-17th century. This lecture will consider some of the main musical developments since then, beginning with the Sephardi and Ashkenazi synagogues which stood practically side-by-side in the City of London for 250 years. We will examine the birth of the Anglo-Jewish choral tradition, the split with the Reform movement and its musical consequences, and the new music brought more recently by immigrants from Eastern Europe and Arab lands. A lecture by Chazan Eliot Alderman The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/synagogue-music-history Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download fr

At one point in his life, Shostakovich considered the career of a concert pianist. He was talented enough to become a Soviet competitor at the international Chopin Competition of 1927, but he was struck down with acute appendicitis, and he had to leave with only a diploma rather than a major prize. Whether his pain and disappointment soured his relations with the piano we cannot be sure, it is astonishing that his piano music studiously avoids the virtuosity he had assiduously cultivated as a young performer. Almost all his piano writing is in some way experimental, conceptual, challenging the pianist to make sense of piano writing that often seems ungrateful, not unlike Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, which we heard in the first lecture of this series. Even so, Shostakovich’s monumental cycle of Preludes and Fugues stands at the very core of his output. Written “for the desk drawer” in his most difficult years, following a second round of official criticism, it often rejoices in the very “formalism”

Were the Crusades an early example of European colonialism? What value did the crusading frontier hold for the knights who fought to defend it? What was the relationship between the Crusades and the knightly culture of chivalry? To answer these questions requires a new approach to the Crusades, one focused as much on cultural production as military encounter. In this lecture, we explore the nexus between three powerful forces that shaped the medieval world: holy war, knighthood, and the expansion of Europe. In partnership with the Fulbright Commission A lecture by Nicholas Paul The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/crusades Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download fr

Caroline Lucretia Herschel (1750-1848) was the first woman professional astronomer, and by the time of her death she had been awarded the Royal Astronomical Society Gold Medal and had discovered 8 comets. In this talk Dr Sheila Kanani combines the story of a pioneering woman astronomer, with an account of the science behind comets, asteroids and meteors. This talk will end with a demonstration of how to make a comet model using kitchen ingredients. A lecture by Sheila Kanani The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/caroline-herschel Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website. Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Fa

In 1615 Katharina Kepler, illiterate mother of the astronomer Johannes Kepler, was accused of being a witch. At that time in Germany, there was a witch ‘craze’. Over half of the c.50,000 executions in Europe for witchcraft between 1500 and 1700 took place in Germany. During the next 6 years Katharina fought her accusation. The astronomer took over her legal defence in 1620. This lecture explores this astonishing story, and asks how the witch craze affected people’s lives. A lecture by Ulinka Rublack FBA The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/keplers-mother Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website. Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://tw

The Magnetic Resonator Piano invented by Andrew McPherson sees electromagnets suspended above the strings of a regular grand piano, allowing for control of minute details of shimmering resonance, crescendo from silence, and sustained "bowed" sounds that the performer can shape directly from the keyboard scanner while retaining the use of the original mechanism. The instrument transforms into an unrecognisable and stunning electroacoustic cyborg. The lecturer, a concert pianist and improviser, will introduce this instrument to the audience from a performance perspective. A lecture by Xenia Pestova Bennett The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cyborg-piano Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures

The screening of witnesses for anonymity in the context of inquests and public inquiries is hugely contentious. Why does putting witnesses behind a screen cause such concern for human rights and civil liberties advocates? What are protective measures? Has there been an increase in such applications? Who makes them? Why do state agents who have done nothing wrong want to hide? What are the benefits for families and the public of seeing important witnesses giving evidence? A lecture by Leslie Thomas QC The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/witness-anonymity Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website. Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitt

We often think that psychological biases worsen decision making - but they can also be harnessed for good. This talk will discuss how “nudging” can help citizens make better decisions. For example, due to “status quo bias” (inertia), auto-enrolling employees into a pension makes them more likely to save. Due to “loss aversion”, punishments for smoking can be more effective than rewards for not smoking. Due to “hyperbolic discounting” (impatience), immediate rewards can encourage good long-term habits such as exercise. A lecture by Alex Edmans The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/nudging-society Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website. Website: http:

Toy pianos were first made in the 19th century. This lecture/recital tells the story of an instrument originally marketed at children, that subsequently made a surprising transition into the professional sphere and is currently enjoying unprecedented popularity as a concert instrument in its own right with a growing body of repertoire. This unusual miniature instrument provides a respite from the traditional implications of the grand piano and breaks the ice with audiences. A lecture by Dr Xenia Pestova Bennett, 26 May The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/toy-pianos Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website. Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter:

Mathematics has been used as a tool to understand and control infectious disease for over a century, but Covid-19 brought along a whole epidemic of new challenges. In this joint lecture with the London Mathematical Society we will see some of the maths used in the fight against the pandemic, and also hear some insights into life as a mathematician assisting with policy advice during this unprecedented time. In association with the London Mathematical Society A lecture by Dr Julia Gog OBE, 27 May The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-covid Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website. Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/Gr

Several different schools of philosophy emerged at the same time and shortly after the famous traditions of Platonism and Aristotelianism in ancient Greece. The most significant, which have had a lasting impact on philosophy since antiquity, were Cynicism, Stoicism and Epicureanism, each of which offered a moral programme advocating the best way to live and a more abstract physical, scientific model of the workings of the universe. This lecture traces the main intellectual strands in each, focussing on the differences between them. The great thinkers whose works will be considered in detail are the fragments of Diogenes and of Zeno, the founders of Cynicism and Stoicism respectively, and Lucretius, the author of the great Epicurean poem of the 1st century BCE, On the Nature of Things. A lecture by Edith Hall, 27 May The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cynics-stoics-epicureans Gresham College