Dame Ethel Smyth’s Jubilee

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 370, 2 June 1928, Page 22

Dame Ethel Smyth’s Jubilee

Greatest Living Female Composer J A'IE ETHEL SMYTH, * one of the foremost iQjLy'i? English composers, and 1 JB/grA_B the greatest living /■JW'ASp! creative musician of her sex, has celebrated j, er ar tistic jubilee the first public performance of a work by her having taken place in 1878. This was a violin sonata, which was played in the Gewandhaus at Leipsig, where Dame Ethel was then a student. Since then she has attained fame, not only in her own country, but abroad Her grand operas, “Der Wald” aDd "The Wreckers,” have had performance's in Berlin, Vienna, and

other Continental centres, as well as at Covent Garden. Dame Ethel, indeed, enjoys the distinction of being the only woman composer who has figured on the "grand opera” repertoire of the big opera houses. Dream Realised The jubilee celebrations began soon after- Dame Ethel’s birthday. The British Broadcasting Company gave a special performance on May 20 of her Mass, a work which has had a chequered career. Originally produced by the Royal Choral Society at the Albert Hall in 1893, it was then laid aside for over 30 years. Recently, however, it has been “revived” very successfully, and will be one of the features of the Three Choirs Festival at Gloucester this autumn. It is well known among Dame Ethel’s intimate friends that a performance of her Mass in a cathedral has been the goal on which her heart has been fixed for 35 years. The Royal Choral Society will also give a special performance of the Mass, and on June 28 the University of St. Andrews will confer on the composer the honorary degree of LL.D. Dame Ethel is already a Mus. Doc. of Durham University. Dame Ethel’a jubilee will also be celebrated on the Continent by a concert at Berlin, of her orchestral works, played by the Berlin Philharmonic Society, conducted by Bruno Walter.