Broadcast Music for Coming Week

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 45, 24 May 1929, Page 14

Broadcast Music for Coming Week

"Tis the deep music of the rolling world, Kindling within the strings of the waved air-

Aeolian modulations."

Shelley

By

Bolton

Woods

"They Married and Lived-" FRANCOIS ADRIEN BOIELDIEU was the son of the secretary of the Archbishop of Rouen and a milliner. During the Revolution his parents were divorced, and he took up his residence with his music master, Broche, organist of the cathedral, who was a drunkard, and abused him so that the lad ran away to Paris. His family brought him back, and he stayed with Broche until he produced his first opera, for which his father wrote the libretto, He went to Paris and produced several operas and wrote numerous songs. In 4800 he was successful in winning a professorship of the piano at the Cong#ervatoire, and in that year his greatest success, "Oaliph of Bagdad," was erformed. Owing to domestic trouble he accepted the post of conductor of the Mt. Petersburg Opera, which he held for eight years. He returned to Paris

and wrgte seyeral more operas, and married the singer, Phillis, with whom he was very happy. The station orchestra at 1YA will play the overture to the "Caliph of Bagdad" on Thursday, May 30. ‘Dear Old Swanee." HH "Plantation Songs" of Stephen Collins Foster are among the masterpieces -of music, There is an appeal in every cadence of their melodies, a touching beauty in every line of their lyries. Nothing quite like them had existed in music before Foster gave them to the world, and whatever of their character has been written since has borrowed something of the sweetness and soft loveliness of Foster’s immortal songs. A record of Sophie Braslau and a male quartet singing TF oster’s ‘Old

Folks at Home" will be used at 1YA on Wednesday, May 29. A Great Modern Goes East. (OXYRIL SCOTT has written numbers of songs and piano pieces, and quantities of chamber music which are too seldom heard, Of his piano pieces one of the best known is the very atmospheriec "Lotus Land." The soft languor of Kgypt, the tinkling sounds, the long reaches of sky and river, scented gardens, the sound of falling water, all the mystery of the land where the lotus blooms is re-created in the fascinating cadences of this singularly suecessful piece of descriptive music. Mr. Cyril Towsey will play Scott’s "Lotus Land" at 1YA on Friday, May 31. "East is East, and West is West." "T AKMW" is Delibes's most suecsssful opera, and is very popular in France. The story deals with Lakme, who is the daughter of a Brahmin priest. A party of English tourists accidentally enter a sacred grove and Gerald, one of the party, has not time to leave before the priestess enters, and he is forced to hide. Lakme sings, and Gerald makes himself known, and declares his love. The priest enters as Gerald leaves, and vows vengeance, They again meet in the native bazaar, and when Gerald presses forward to see Lakme, he is stabbed in the back. Lakme has him taken to a secret bower in the woods, and nurses him back to health. One of his friends finds him and persuades him to return. Lakme realises that life will be nothing without Gerald, and eats a leaf of a poisonous plant, and expires in her father’s arms. The Studio Trio at 1YA will play ‘selections from Delibes’s "Lakme" on Tuesday, May 28. Butterfly Anticipates. HEN first produced in Milan, Puccini’s opera, "Madame Butterfly," was a failure, It was revised and again presented some months later, when it was most successful. This same fate befel "Faust" and "The Barber of Seville," both of which are among the greatest favourites to-day,

In "Madame Butterfly" there appears for once a hero whom all can cordially dislike, To pass away.the time while his ship is stationed in Nagasaki, he contracts @ marriage with a Japanese girl, despite the fact that he is already married. She has long admired him from afar, and is only too willing to euter into the contract, When he sails away he promises to return to her, but three years elapse and he has not come. Butterfly’s maid tries to pérsuade her that he is false, but in the beautiful aria, "One Fine’ Day," Butterfly insists that he will return. He does, and accompanied by his wife. Butterfly realising all, commits harakiri, and Pinkerton, her lover, finds her dead. Miss Gretta Stark will sing "One Fine Day" at 2YA on Friday, May 81. Weber’s Revival. NDOUBTEDLY one of the most distinguished composers Hngland ever produced was Sir Henry Bishop. He wrote eighty-two operas and vaudeyilles, ballets, songs, and revisions of old operas. He was born in London in 1786, and at an early age began to study music with Bianchi, In 1810 he was made. conductor and composer at Covent Garden. In 1825, he was engaged to compose for Drury Lane, in riyalry to Weber, and produced "Aladdin," in opposition to Weber’s "Oberon." His last dramatic work was "The Fortunate Isles," produced at Covent Garden to celebrate the queen’s wedding. His wife’ was a highly esteemed coneert singer, who toured America and Australia with the harpist, Bochsa, who died in the latter country. Bishop died in 1855, and was buried at Finchley. The band of the First Battalion Wellington Regiment, conducted by Lieut. B. J, Sbhardiow, will play a selection introducing several of Bishop’s bestknown gongs, at 2YA on Thursday, May 30. The Most Popular Air. "QMBRA MAI FU" is the beautiful air for alto voices known the world over as Handel’s "Largo." It was written originally as an aria in the opera "Xerxes," The style in which

it is written, which is indicated by the title, an Italian word expressing great breadth and flowing melody, is \ one in which Handel was particularly ‘ distinguished. There are more pasgages in Handel’s works in the "largo" style than in any other. Miss Edith Buckmaster, contralto, will sing "Ombra Mai Fu" at 2YA on Friday, May 31. A Nature Picture, (SECILE CHAMINADE was a composer at the early age of eight. She gave her first concert when 18, and at once became a favourite pianist, appearing throughout BHurope in recitals of her own works. One of her most brilliant works is "Autumn." The piece is in the nature of a ballad and contains a superb climax, almost orchestral in character. In it she has treated the delightful theme with great kill and fine musicianship. It is altoost slike a hymn in celebration of the festival of harvest, and the rich colours and fine sonority typify the generous beauty of autumn. Mrs. J. BE. Russell will play Chamins ade’s "Autumn" at 3YA on Thursday, May 30. Old Omar Sings. Lia LEHMANN’S song cycle, "In a Persian Garden," is a sympathetic and colourful setting of verses from Fitzgerald’s translation of:the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Persian poet, ‘It is interesting to know that, while this famous poem was written over eight hundred years ago (Omar died in 1123), it is full of modern philosophical thought and poetic imagination. The Grand Opera Quartet at 3YA will sing the quartet "They Say the ‘Lion and the Lizard Keep," -from Lehmann’s "In a Persian Garden," on Sunday, May 26. Inanimate Nymphs. ANDEL composed his "Acis and Galatea" for the Duke of Chandos in 1721. It was produced to the public in 1731 at a benefit concert for the singer Rochetti. An advertisement of the performance states that the stage would be decorated with rocks, groves and fountains, among which would be disposed a chorus of nymphs and shepherds, but the ctors would be seated on their rocks "with no action." As was the custom in those days, Handel had left in his oratorios the organ parts ad libitum, giving only an indication of the bass, Mozart was such an admirer of Handel that he filled in some gaps in most of the works, and -famplified the orchestration of "The fessiah," "Acis and Galatea," and geveral others. . The Woolston Band, under the conductorship of Mr. R. J. Bstall, will play selections from "Acis and Galatea" at 3YA on Monday, May 27. Communing with Nature. So dearly did he love the hills and streams of hi, native New Eng1 nd that the district round about his home spoke to Edward McDowell in a language which he alone understood. What they whispered to him he translated in his beautiful suite of ‘""Woodland Sketches." Such musie as is of4 fered in these exquisite pieces seems the ideal expression of the mood and nicture he would create for us. In "To n Wild Rose’ we have the fragile beauty of the dainty flower truly reflected, and "To a Water Lily" the

fairy loveliness of the blossom is portrayed. Mrs. J, B. Russell’s Ladies’ Glee Olub party will render MeDowell’s "To a Wild Rose" us a three-part song at 3YA on Thursday. May 30. Jenny Lind’s Pianist. Gir JUIUS BENEDICT exercised as great an influence on English musical development as any foreigner settled there since Handel’s time. He wag a native of Stuttgart, where he was born in 1804. He conducted various orchestras and theatres in his birthplace, Vienna, Naples, and Paris. He went to Hngland in 1834, and proved several of his operas, which were immediate successes. He toured the United States with Jenny Lind, directing the concerts, and on his return was conductor at the various festivals throughout Hngland, In 1871 he was k ighted, and received many foreign orders on his 70th birthday. He died in London in June, 1885. The Grand Opera Duo will sing a duet, "The Moon Hath Raised Her Lamp Above," from Benedict’s "Lily of Killarney," at 8YA on Sunday, May 26. England’: Parson-Poet. "THE words of "Cherry Ripe" are Robert Herrick’s, who was vicar of Dean Prior in Devon. There he was tk ‘ied in the churchyard in 1674. He was expelled from his livin’ during the Protecturate, but lived to be reinstated under the Act of Uniformity. His poems contain many hits : his parishioners, whose manners, he says, "were rockie as their ways’; but they are fil o.. the wild flowers-dai_odils and primroses- which abound in the orchards and hedgerows of Dean. Charles Edward Horn, who wrote the music, was the son of a German musician who settled in London in 1782, He produced a number of operas, but none of em have lived. "Cherry Ripe" first appeared, set by Horn, in 1825. Miss Dorothy Allen, contralto, will sing "Cherry Ripe’? at 4YA on Wednesday, May 29. The Fragrance of the Pine. . HB greate,t of the Scandinavian composers, Hdward Grieg, is istinctly a national comp: :r, and his music seems to almost carry the fragrance of his native pine wooods into the concert hall. His many short piano pieces and his beautiful songs show this composer to great advantage. He has written no more successful work than "To Spring." It seems a veritable hymn to Spring, has the fascinating -relodie quality and beautiful harmonies inseparable from Grieg’s music, The 4YA Broadcasting Trio will play Grieg's "To Snring" on Friday, May