Broadcast Music for Coming Week

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 53, 19 July 1929, Page 8

Broadcast Music for Coming Week

""?Tis the deep music of the rolling world, Kindling within the strings of the.waved airAeolian modulations." pe RS --Shelley.

Bv

Bolton

Woods

The Queen Presents Arms. THE opera "The Golden Cockerel" is * a queer, imaginative work by Rim-sky-Korsakov. The censor refused ‘to ‘sanction its performance during the "eomposer’s lifetime, and his difficulties with the authorities in this matter are said to have hastened his end. When :the work was given in Petrograd it "was thought to be over-taxing for the sactors to both sing and dance, so at ‘further performances the singers sat at ‘the sides and the dancers interpreted, _ ‘it pantomime, what was sung. The "best known number from the opera is ‘the "Hymn to the Sun." It is sung by _ the Queen of Shemakha, to the foolish old King Dodon,. who has gone out to fight her, for she was coming to invade ‘his kingdom, but instead he is conquered by her charm. Mr. F. Parsons will -play the "Hymn" as a violin solo at ‘AYA on. Monday, July 22.

"The Two Larks." HEODOR °LESCHETIZKY, _ the great teacher of so many brilliant pianists, including Paderewski, found time to compose several delightful pieces for the piano. The best known is "The "Two Larks," a work which really seems. to voice the wonderful song of the skylark soaring to greet the day. Rippling cadences answer each other, and an exquisite freshness permeates the composition from beginning to end. Miss L. Martin will play "The Two Larks" at 1YA on Wednesday, July 24, when the programme will be presented by the members of the Jubilee Institute’ for the Blind. Yradier’s Masterpiece. nun well-known and popular favourite "La Paloma" (‘The Dove’) seems to have had its birth: in Cuba.

Now it has become a kind of national song, sung and heard everywhere, not only in the island of its origin, but throughout all South American Spanish countries. Its lyrics are pleasantly sentimental, and carry a poetic thought in the following lines: "Tf at thy pane a beautiful dove comes winging, Say thou wilt love it, close to thy heart oh press it! But say thou’lt follow it, dearest one, ever, E’en to my mountain home." The 1YA Orchestra will play an arrangement of the song "La Paloma" on Saturday, July 27, Romany Melodies. [NX his fascinating book, "Nights and Days on the Gipsy Trail," Irving Brown says that the gipsies have kept alive and helped perfect to the highest degree the folk arts. He \ writes: "Those of Hungary, especially, are the

greatest folk musicians in the world, according to Liszt, who paid them the sincerest form of compliment-that of imitating them. Liszt is only one of the great. composers from Haydn to Dvorak and Wnescu. who have learned and borrowed from them. The debt which music owes to this race of natural born artists is immense." The Studio Orchestra will play "Gipsy Songs" by Dvorak at 2YA on Monday, July 22, A Musical Globe-trotter. PROFESSOR GRANVILLE BANTOCK’S career has taken him all over the world, and many different lands have given him. the inspiration for his music. He received his training at Trinity College, London, and at ‘the Royal Academy of Music. His first tour was with a musical comedy company when he almost circled the globe. Since then he has held the posts of Musical Director at, New. Brighton. Tower, Principal of the Birmingham and Midland Institute School of Music, and Professor of Music in the Univetsity of Birmingham. In his choice of subjects for musical treatment he has frequently been: attracted by Eastern and pagan ideas, poetry, and mythology. Mr. E. W. Robbins will sing Bantock’s "A Feast of Lanterns" at 2YA on Tuesday, July 23, and Miss Agnes _MeDavitt will sing "The Peach Flower," by the same composer, at 2YA on Monday, July 22. S&S . Napoleon’s Ghost‘ Rises. NE of the most dramatic songs ever written is "The Midnight Review,’ by Michael Ivapovitch.Glinka, who has been called "the father. of modern Russian music." 'The words by Joukovsky, are based on a- legend of Napoleon, whose ghost is said. to rise at midnight on the field of Waterloo, and hold a review of the dead.- A ghostly

drummer summons the infantry, i bugler calls the cavalry, and lastly the leader himself appears on his old charger, and reviews the spectral army before him. Nothing more dramatic than the music of this scene can be imagined. Mr, E. McLellan will sing "The Midnight Review" at 2YA | on Fri- > day, July 26. , Bearing the Torch. ONE of the modern members of the Russian school ef composers who could look back with pride to the inspiring teaching: of Rimsky-Korsakov, at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire," was Antony Arensky. He has composed almost all kinds of music, operas, ballets, cantatas, and’ church music. More than his contemporaries he has earried on Tschaikovsky’s — tradition, though with less dramatic force than the great master. Undoubtedly many of his pieces are destined to enjoy a lasting popularity. The 3YA Broadeasting Trio will play "Elegia and Finale," by Arensky, on Wednesday, July 24. A Chamber Musician. [Zz was his symphonic poem "Isabella" which first established Frank Bridge’s reputation as a composer to be reckoned with. At first a student of the violin, he entered the Royal College of Music and studied for four years with Sir C. V. Stanford. He conducted at Queen’s Hall and at Covent Garden, and was for some time viola player in the Joachim Quartet. In 1928-24 he visited America, and conducted his own works with the Boston and New York Symphony Orchestras, and at the, Pittsfield Festival. The 8YA Broadeasting Trio will play a suite of dances by Bridge, minuet, gavotte, Valse Russe, and hornpipe, on Sunday; July 21. Hauntingly Beautiful. "*PyLaey, " by Massenet, has been transcribed for almost every instrument, and has been sung by singers of every range of voice. It possesses a haunting beauty, and its strange mel ancholy has an extraordinary fascination. It was composed as part of the incidental music to "Les Erinnyes," by Leconte de Lisle, which was first produced in 1878. Miss Vera Martin will sing Massenet’s "HBlegy" at 3YA on Wednesday, July.24. Blessed With Fortitude. "THERD is something rather pathetic in the fact that Raff is now known almost solely: by the one melodious piece-Cavatina. He was one of the most industrious composers who eyer lived. It is recorded that on one occa~sion, on coming back to a composition class after a brief illness, he chided them for laziness, announcing proudly that during the few days he had ‘been off duty he had composed:a string quartet. several vocal choruses, and various

‘smaller pieces. His immense industry | was in Keeping with a great strength of — charactér whieh enabled him to endure severe priyations in early 4ife. Most people would have been crushed by the handicaps which he, as a young man, had to face. However, he eventually achieved real distinction both as a composer and as a teacher, The 8¥A Broadcasting Trio will play Raff’s "Cavatina" on Monday, July 22. Grave and: Gay. BR4eaMs' Op, 1 (published in 1853, when he was twenty). was a work for the piano. He began his career as a pianist, and during his early years of composition he tackled the Piano Sonata form several times, He next wrote some half-dozen sets of yariations. Then for about a dozen years the almost entirely ceased-to write for the pianoforte alone, his next piano work being a set of eight pieces, four entitled "Capriccio" and foyr "Intermezzo." The "Intermezzo in B flat minor" makes expressive use of harplike motifs; the whole in a spirit of tender reflection, in a mood almost of melaneholy. The "Capriccio in B minor" is in lighter mood, suggestive _ of gay dance rhythms, the. background for a ballet of care-free sprites. . Miss Dorothy Davies will play the "Intermezzo" and "G@apriccio" at 3¥A _on Thursday, July 25, ; A Tell-tale Spirit, THE story of Ddward German's opera ~~. "Merrie England" is laid in the glorious days of Queen Elizabeth. The -stery is simple, Walter Raleigh is in. love with. Bessie Throckmorton, Maid of Honour to the Queen, He has given hey an acrostie which she has lest, and which has been found by: the witch. Jill-all-alone, It is given to the Queen, whe thinks it is for her and is quite pleased, On discovering that it is not, she orders.the. lovers to he banished, and the-witeh to be burned, The Harl of Essex*accompanies the Queen on a trip .through Windsor TYorest, and causes the apparition of Herne the Hunter to appear, tradition having it that the ghost appears only when the monarch meditates a wrong. The Queen relents and all are pardoned. : Miss’ Valda..McCurdy will sing the "Waltz Song" from "Merrie England," and Mr,,H, Drew will sing "The Yeo"men of England" fram the same opera. at 4¥A on Tuesday, July 23. bed ye Bd &