Broadcast Music for Coming Week

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 9, 13 September 1929, Page 11

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." —

Haydn’s Nature Sketches. ITH Verdure Clad" is the air sung by the Angel Gabriel in, . Haydn’s "Creation." The following from the preface to Sir George Macurren’s edition of the oratorio decribes: the number: "Gabriel, who was he guardian of Paradise in Rabbinieal tradition, tells of the adornment of the earth with vegetation; the beautiful .air which is an outpouring of the composer’s feelings on the contemplation of the sunlit landscape in ‘its many-hued. beauty, with the predominance of that warm colour on which the sight loves to repose, fulfils the plan of the first movement of an instrumental sonata, having its first and second subjects, its elaboration of these, and its retrospect of its own earlier portion, and, according to Bombet, it is the third essay of the composer to do justice to the situation, and in this finished form was a special favourite with him." Miss Bva Scott will sing "With Verdure Clad" at 4YA " on Tuesday, September 17. Son of a Butcher. DVORAK was a COzecho-Slovak, a native of Prague, and perhaps, the greatest composer that Bohemia has produced, so that no master could give a truer note to Slavonic dances than the man who had been initiated into them from the day he began to walk. For Dvorak was of the people of the common class, and had a very hard struggle to make a name for himself. He was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and the way of genius is not the path of the peer or the profiteer. These dances are delightful. One can imagine the joyous ‘peasantry of the wild uplands of their country, now happily released from the thrall of Austria, after a period of nearly 400 years, indulging in them with the abandon of free spirits , escaped from the gall of servitude. A record of the "Slavonic Dance in G ‘s4inor" will be used at SYA on Thursday, September 19. A Witty Pole. (THERE is an amusing story: told about Paderewski’s late arrival ‘at an at-home at which he was the chief performer. As he entered the room he heard the hostess say to a guest, a well-known polo player and an excellent amateur musician, "Oh, Captain, do be a dear kind soul and play us a solo until Paderewski arrives." The great pianist did not make himself known until the captain had finished his solo, then turning to ~ the amateur he graciously congratulated him. "Ah!" said the young man, "it is very kind of you to congratulate me, but nobody is more p&infully aware of the fact of how great a difference there is between us," "Oh," replied Paderewski, "the difference \

isn’t so very great. after all-you are a dear soul who plays polo, while | I am a poor Pole who plays solo." A record of Paderewski’s "Minuet" will be used at 8YA on Friday, September 20. Unsportsmanlike "Sports." ANNHAUSDR" is the second of Wagner’s great works and was first performed in Dresden in October, 1845. At a performance of the opera in 1861, it is difficult to say whether the performance was on the stage or in the auditorium, for the uproar in the house often drowned the sounds from the stage. The members of the Jockey Club, who objected to the absence of a ballet, armed themselves with shrill whistles, on which they be‘gan to blow whenever there was the slightest hint of applause, and the result was that between the efforts of the singers to make themselves heard and of Wagner’s friends to applaud, and the shrill whistling of his enemies, there was confusion worse confounded. The famous "Pilgrims’ Chorus," from "Tannhauser," will be ‘played by a trombone trio, Messrs. HB. Williams, W. Lanham and W. Steere, at 8YA on Monday, September 16. Finding Himself. | AHE famous "Intermezzo" in "Cavalleria Rusticana" is played between the first and second acts of the opera. The curtain remains up during its performance, although the stage is empty of actors. Its beautiful, almost religious calm is very grateful, heard as it is after the storm and stress of the first act, with its exposition of the anger and hate of the hot-blooded Sicil-' jans, whose intrigues bring about the tragedy with which the opera concludes. "Cavalleria Rusticana" is the work by which Mascagni is known throughout the world. In it, in 1890, Mascagni, at the age of twenty-one, found himself, and ever since has been trying, unsuccessfully, to find himself again. The "Intermezzo," played. by the famous Milan Symphony Orchestra, will open the dinner session at 3YA on Wednesday, September 18. Gipsy Blacksmiths. HE "Anvil Chorus" from "Il Trovatore" (The Troubadour) is always a joy. Full of brilliance and infectious gaiety, it never fails to delight the hearer. The libretto of the.opera is considered the acme of absurdity; and. the popularity of the opera, notwithstanding, is believed to be entirely due to the almost unbroken melodiousness of Verdi’s score. When the curtain rises on Act II, the scene is ai -ncampment of gipsies. There is a ruined house at the foot of a mountain in Biscay; the interior partly exposed to view; within a great fire is lighted. Day begins to dawn.- The gypsies working at the forge, swing their ham-

mers, and bring them down on clanking metal in rhythm with the music. A record of the "Anvil Chorus," sung by the chorus of the, La Scala-Opera House, will be used at 3YA on, Wednesday, September 18, "Parsifal" .in Brief. THE story of "Parsifal," as remodelled by Wagner from the old legends, is brief as follows: The Grail bas been given into’ the keeping of Titurel and his knights. They have, too, the holy spear with which the soldier pierced our Lord’s side upon the Cross. Titurel has built a great castle to guard the sacred relics against a pagan world, and especially against the magician Klingsor, who, with the help of his Flower Maidens and the arch-enchantress Kundry, endeavours to seduce the knights. Amfortas, son of Titurel, has been overcome by the magician’s arts, and has been forced to leave in his hands the sacred spear, with which he himself was. sorely wounded, when Klingsor seized it. Nothing can heal the wound save a touch of the spear, and it has been prophesied that only a guileless fool can avail to win it back for them. Parsifal is the guileless knight who in the end overeomes Klingsor’s magic, and not only restores the spear to Amfortas’s keeping, but wins Kundry to abandon her sorceries and join the service of the Grail, to find death and foregiveness in the last mystic scene when Amfortas is healed, and the radiance of the Grail is shed again over i‘: knights.

The Woolston Band will.play selections from Wagner’s "Parsifal" at 3YA on Monday, Seputember 16. A Patriotic Rhapsodist. [z is interesting to know that Liszt was a nine-year-old boy when he left his native Hungary, and he was nearly thirty when he revisited ‘the place of his birth. Liszt, hearing of the struggles of his country, remempered that he was a Hungarian and was fired with a desire to again see the land of his birth, His reappearance there was the occasion of demonstrations indescribable in their enthusiasm. Liszt was the idol of all )urope, and Hungary was wild with: delight in acclaiming her son. After this never-to-be-forgotten visit Liszt turned his attention to the gipsy music of ‘his rediscovered country, Its influence on him was such as to create the great series of "Hungarian Rhapsodies." ‘Lhe "Rhapsodies" are made up of gipsy songs and dances, marvellous little tunes, expressing a great variety of moods which Liszt has woven into a gorgeous musical fabric. They are justly famous.’ The tenth is notable for the graceful glissando scales, ascending and descending the keyboard. Miss Ena Sneddon will play the tenth "Rhapsody" at 2YA on Thursday, September 19.