Broadcast Music for Coming Week

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 6, 23 August 1929, Page 13

Broadcast Music for Coming Week

By

Bolton

Woods

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

A- Vivid Rossini Overture. ORLX the overture of Rossini's "Semiramide" now survives. It is interesting, however, to recall that the opera itself made something of a suceess at the King’s Theatre, London, 1824, after being a somewhat diseouraging failure on its original production at Venice the year before, The overture begins with a vigorous measure where brass and woodwind combine over a continual roli of the drums to build up a-thrilling climax. Then comes a more slowly moving passage, based on the duet sung in the opera by Semiramis, Empress of Ninevah, and Arsaces, the leader of her armies, and though she does not know it, her son. ‘This slower section. is followed by another Allegro, which brings the work to an end with all Rossini’s usual brilliance and energy. The programme at 4YA on Monday, August 26, will open with this overture. A‘Queen’s Favourite Violinist.

. } [aE composer of "Zigeuinerweisen" _ for violin and orchestra, "Jota Aragonesa," four books of highly popular Spanish dances, and many romances and fantasies for violin, Sarasate, was during his lifetime regarded as one of the greatest violinists. He was a prize pupil of the. Paris Conservatory, where he studied until he began his concert tours to all parts of the world, at the age of twenty-six. In boyhood he was presented with a fine Stradivarius by Queen Isabella cf Spain, and he was always a special favourite with his countrymen, an annual fete being held at Pampeluna, in his honour. Lalo’s first concerto, Brusch’s second concerto and "Scotch Fantasia," and Mackenzie’s "Pibroch Suite’ were all specially composed for this artist. He was born at Pampeluna in 1844, and died at Biarritz in 1908. The 2YA Orchestra will play Sarasate’s "Romanza Andaluza" on thuesday, August 27. Palmgren’s "May Night." ey the days of the older composers, Bach, Weber and Beethoven, musical works were known by such designations as "Sonata," "Rondo," "Scherzo" and other similar’ titles, which merely gave a clue to the general nature of the piece, but were entire non-descriptive. Composers of today seek to impart in tones a definite musical picture. Debussy .chooses such titles as "Reflection in the Water," "Moonlight," "Minstrels," etc. Grieg almost invariably gives a picturesque or dramatic suggestion in the names of his pieces and so do nearly all modern composers. The title "May Night," which Palmgren chose for one of his best known compositions, is rich in poetic suggestion. The warm air, the scent of lilacs, the fresh green of the new verdure, all made more beautiful

by the light of the May moon. All these are found in this exquisite work which employs the progressions and harmonies and exotic tints, which impart, to all works of this kind, a beauty peculiarly appealing, once it is seen and understood. Mrs. Ernest Drake. will play Palmgren’s "May Night," at 4YA on Monday, August 26. Early French Music. THE jong line of Couperins was prominent in the history of French music from:-the middle of the seventeenth century down to the nineteenth. The most famous member of the clan was Francois, who was born in Paris in 1668, and who died there in 1733. The "Pavan" is a stately .dance in 4-4 time, ‘usually in’ three parts, each of which is repeated. Owing to its rather pompous nature it is usually used in compositions of a funereal character, The name was once thought to have been derived from "pavo," peacock, but is now conceded to have been

derived from Padua, where it originated. Miss Molly Wright will play Couperin’s "Chanson Louis XIII et Pavane" at 1YA on Tuesday, August 27. A Sailor Turned Musician. IKE more than one of his gifted compatriots, Rimsky-Korsakov began his career as a musician from the amateur’s point of view. Born in that class of Russian society whose sons have to choose between two careers, he was a sailor.until his thirtieth year. He commemorated a visit to Spain by writing his impressions in musical form, and the result was the "Capriccio Hspagnole," which embodies many scenes he found during his travels. Most of the movements are in Spanish dance rhythms, with characteristic names. The contrasting sections depict the scenes very faithfully, and the suite consists of five parts, Alborada, Variations, Alborada (repeated), Scene and Gipsy Song, Fandango. The "Capriecio Espagnole" will be played at 2YA on Monday, August 26.

Of All the Most Beautiful. WHEN Chopin was nearly thirty he published a book of twenty-four preludes, oner in each key, major and minor. They were written while he was staying with George Sand at Valdemosa in Majorea, "in a great abandoned Carthusian monastery, in one of the cells with doors bigger than the gates of Paris," as he wrote to a friend. "The cell is in the shape of a coffin, high and full of dust on the vault. Before the window orange, palm and cypress trees. . . . Quietness .. . One may shout, and nobody will hear." The Prelude No,:15 is considered by many to ‘be the most beautiful of them all. In it Chopin has elaborated the idea of the constant falling of raindrops which appears in the Sixth Prelude. The middie section is a choral-like melody, which George Sand described as in-

voking a vision of a procession of monks, carrying, in the dark hours of the night, their departed brother to his last resting-place. Chopin’s Preludes 14 and 15 will be played on a record by Robert Lortat, at 1YA on Sunday, September 1. Suitable for Waitomo. THE lilting cadences of the popular "Glow Worm," written in the gavotte tempo, have endeared it to lovers of popular light classics the world over. The piece is. idyllic in character, and a charming story informs us, "When the night falls silently in the dreamy forests, lovers wander forth to gaze upon the stars. Lest they lose their way, the glow-worm lights their path with its tiny lantern." A pleasing legend relates that it is kindled from the glow of the hearts of the lovers themselves. The Melodie Four will sing an ar--. rangement of Lincke’s "Glow Worm" at 2YA on Saturday, August 31. An Orchestral Pioneer. ) QN2 of the pioneers of modern orchestral composition, Berlioz is still regarded as holding a foremost place among the great masters of the orchestra. -He had a white-hot imagination always ready to pour our brilliant ideas in the most grandiloquent way. Add to that the fact that he had at his finger-tips the knowledge of orchestration, and one may well expect that in his picture of "A Roman Carnival" in the sixteenth century he will make you see the scene as vividly as he himself did when he wrote the overture.

He. actually wrote two overtures to "Benvenuto Cellini," what we know as the "Roman Carnival" being the second of these, and specially composed for the London production of the work. It was then played before the second act, and was well, although not boisterously xeceived. e A record of the "Roman Carnival," played by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, will be used at 2YA on Menday, August 26. ‘Four Plain Bluejackets." " A PRINCESS OF KENSINGTON," with a libretto by Basil Hood, followed "Merrie England," in which he had also collaborated with German, in 1903. It is a charming fantasy in which a whimsical humour like Gilbert’s is blended with something like the fancy of Sir James Barrie, and romance is woven into the fabric of modern London life with subtle and delicate charm, German’s music fits the story in the same happy way that Sullivan’s music seems inseparable from Gilbert’s inimitable nonsense, and the opera promised at first to carry on the long series of Savoy successes, with the brightest of hopes for a still further series. And yet, although it was warmly welcomed later on, when the d’Oyly Carte people took it on tour it was not contrived to hold the stage, and except for selections and one or two numbers, is almost never heard. Mr. Duncan Black will sing "Four Jolly Sailormen" from the opera at 1YA on Tuesday, August 27.