In the Palm Court

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 797, 29 October 1954, Page 30

In the Palm Court

F you imagine yourself at a good hotel, settled comfortably in the Palm Court for half an hour of pleasant light music after a good meal-that’s the idea behind Grand Hotel. For a long time this imaginary hotel was a very real place for the BBC’s listeners when they joined the Light Programme on Sunday evenings for the concerts given by Tom Jenkins and the Palm Court Orchestra. Two of these popular programmes have now been issued on BBC transcriptions and are to start next week the rounds of National stations of the NZBS, A selection from King’s Rhapsody, by Ivor Novello, opens the first concert, which will be heard from 4YZ in Weekend Review at 1.45 p.m. on Sunday, November 7. This concert also includes music by Delibes and a Mendelssohn Fantasia. The soloist is the Australian baritone John Cameron, who toured Australia and New Zealand in 1948-49 and later joined Covent Garden Opera as principal role baritone. He sings two old favourites, "The Road to Mandalay" and "Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen." A regular feature of Grand Hotel is a violin solo by Tom Jenkins, and for this first performance he has chosen "Gipsy Carnival,’ by Jasha Krein. A selection from The Desert Song opens the second Grand Hotel concert.

Then there’s a medley of waltzes from operas by Strauss, Verdi and Gounod; the contralto Audrey Price sings Landon Ronald’s "O Lovely Night" and "My Curly-headed Baby"; and Tom Jenkins plays as his violin solo Knight Logan’s "Pale Moon."