Listen to 2A Wednesday Next

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 29, 30 January 1931, Page 3

Listen to 2A Wednesday Next

i Specially recorded American Radio : ~ Programmes by Artists of International repute

ROM Wednesday, next there will be no silent night i] at 2YA. In the extended hours recorded items selected from American programmes will be broadcast. Recorded features, or "electrical transcriptions," as they are called in America, are not in plentiful supply for . New Zealand, for the simplé reason that much of the American broadcast entertainment would not be acceptable here. New Zealand listeners were last week given the opportunity of hearing from 2YA samples of some broadcast features which lave a great vogue in America. This programme of specimen recordings was not given with the view to indicating to listeners a type of entertainment which is to be presented on Wednesday evenings, but to enable listeners to form their own opinions of some of the entertainment which is very popular in the States. Some of the recordings were from lengthy serials which are said to create the greatest furore imaginable among listeners all through America. They would not, however, be acceptable in New Zealand. ° , ,

Wepnespay evening programmes will com: prise some of the -best available recorded items from overseas, and the selection which has been made will without doubt prove available and acceptable to a New Zealand radio audience. As published in the "Radio Record" last week,

there will be fix. features on the programme, giv:

ing a wide range of entertainment. Apart from the overseas recordings referred to, a session of dance music will be provided: by European records, and_ there will be a lecture by Dr. Guy H. Scholefield, O.B.E., on a subject of international importance. The whole evening will, therefore, be of an international nature. ; The programme for next Wednesday evening will be headed by the Ormandy Orchestra,. which will, during the ‘evening, . contribute thirty minutes of musical numbers covering a wide range of items. : The Ormandy Orchestra is under the conductorship of a brilliant musician, Dr. Eugene Ormandy. The programme, which will be of a very popular nature, will include such numbers as "Mighty Lak’ a Rose," "The Red Mill" (Herbert), "Should I" (jazz), Strauss’s "Waltz Dream," Brahms’ "Hungarian Dance in

G Minor,; "Don't Leave Me," "Here Am I" (both from "Sweet Adeline"); "Trombonia" and "Stein Song." Dr. Ormandy will himself play as a violin solo Rimsky-Korsakoff’s beautiful "Song of India." Of Hungarian birth, Dr. Ormandy, at the age of three and a half, started

the violin, and, at the age of five, was Y entered in’ the Budapest Academy of Music. At the age of seven he gave his first recital as a wonder child with such success

that he was besieged with offers to tour Europe. His teacher, the famous Hubay, however, refused to allow him to accept any offers, and he went on with his studies, receiving his State Artist’s Diploma at the age of fourteen. At the age of seventeen he had earned his Professorship of Music. Due to his extreme youth, however, he had to get special permission to receive the degree, since it was usually restricted to students over eighteen years. Dr. Ormandy made his first tour during the war, playing throughout Central Europe. During that time he, acted for a short time as concert-master and soloist with the Bluetner Orchestra in Berlin, and, while in that city played Richard Strauss’ "Der Burger Als Edelman" in the presence of the composer. Following the Armistice he received an appointment to head the Master School of Music at the State Conservatoire in Budapest a post he held until his contracts called him for another tour of the Continent, (Concluded on paye 29).

Listen to 2YA (Continued from page 3.) In 1921, Dr. Ormandy went to America with the intention of making a eoncert tour of the country. He was, however, immediately engaged as concert master and soloist of the Capital Theatre Orchestra. In 1925, he was appointed first associate conductor of the Capital Theatre Orchestra. He remained there until May, 1929, when he resigned to devote all of his time to the radio.. R & MRS. LOCKHART will present an amusing sketch entitled "Abroad With the Lockharts," descriptive of a trip to Europe. Gene Lockhart is a composer, author, actor, stage director, and producer. He has many song hits to his credit, among them being "The World is Waiting for the Sunrise." Mrs, Lockhart is an English woman, a graduate of the Royal College of Music, London, and an actress with a reputation earned on the English stage before she went to America to fulfil a. theatrical contract. "Abroad with the Lockharts" abounds with witty dialogue. From the International Singers, listeners will be treated to a- number of good songs. Their items will include "Little David," "Sylvia,’ "Rolling Down to Rio," "Drink to me Only," "On Wings of Song," and "Russian Folk Song." ‘The International Singers are considered by leading critics of the radio and broadcasting world to be one of the hest male quartets singing over the air, and were called by one critic "The Aristocrats of the Air." They are constantly in demand for radio appearances, due to the very high type of programme which they sing and which the radio public is demanding now more than ever before. The four singers comprising this remarkable .ensemble are well known artists in the American concert field. They are Victor Edmunds, _ tenor; George Rasely, tenor; Brwyn Mutch, baritone; and James Davies, basso, all soloists of marked ability, having studied both in America and abroad with the best masters. Thomas Griselle, their pianist and arranger, was winner of the £2500 Victor prize for his composition, "Two American Sketches," and has been conductor of several outstanding radio hours. N Hy Wide and Handsome, who will present a turn of novelty, humorous patter, and good music, listeners will be treated to a duo well worth listening to. This is the story of Hy Wide, a cowboy, who decides to abandon the rigours of a cowboy’s life for the life of a gentleman of leisure. Equipping himself with a valet in the form of one Handsome Flowers, a coloured itinerant Knight of the Road, he set forth in the wide world to woo romance and adventure. A modern Don Quixote in chaps with Sancho Panza in burnt cork. All the popular classical ballads of the West are sung by the superior singing voice of Handsome Flowers. The part of Hiram Wide is taken by Daca, probably the most widely known. most versatile, popular concert and radio artist in America to-day. Graduate of the University of Illinois, he has composed songs in six different languages, and rendered them at all of his concerts with the utmost distinction. He has the signal honour of being the only male pupil that the great Bmma Calve ever accepted. He has toured the world.

John Tucker Battle, who ‘plays" Handsome-and who is the author of Hy Wide and Handsome series-has played leading parts at the Plymouth Theatre, the Mayfair, the President, and other New York theatres. Mr. Battle was born in Texas, and has trae velled extensively through the Southern States and the West Indies studying Negro Dialects, superstitions, religions, and "Folk Ways." He has written many negro spirituals, and is the author of many radio sketches, playlets, and plays. "The Ambassadors of Melody Land" will, as their name suggests, provide a programme of the lighter type. It will be a fifteen minutes’ musical programme, of a continuity nature, featuring one of the, most famous radio and recording orchestras in America, with a first-class cast of singers, comedians, comediennes, quartets, trios, duos, etc. They will present.a programme of some of the best of popular music in America. The star vocalist of the party is Mr. Al Shayne, who will sing a humorous number, "Mysterious Mose." Mr. Shane has toured Britain and the Continent, and is claimed to be the first real American singer of popular songs to attain any success in Burope. He is an outstand- ing figure as a radio singer.