A Cornish Overture

Radio Record, Volume VI, Issue 16, 28 October 1932, Page 5

A Cornish Overture

Dame Ethel Smyth’s "The Wreckers" PLNGLAND'S greatest woman com- ~ poser, Dame Ethel Smyth, like so many eminent musicians, studied at Leipzig, where most of her earlier works were performed. In fact, her music was well known on the Continent before her own countrymen began to give it the recognition which is so truly its due. Among others, Sir George Henschel and Sir Thomas Beecham have been most ardent champions of Dame Ethel’s work for years. The former, when he was conducting at the Crystal Palace, was among the first to bring forward her music, but it was three years after hearing her Cornish opera, "The Wreckers," before Sir Thomas Beecham, notwithstanding all his enthusiasm, could obtain a hearing for it in London. that memorable occasion the onera commanded the interest of all serious music-lovers by its sincerity and strength. . '. The overture of "The Wreckers" will be included in 2YA’s programme for Sunday evening next, when listeners will accompany Mr. L. H. Strachan on a musical tour through the southern counties of England. Dame Jthel’s own analysis of this overture to an opera dealing with Wreckers and Revivalists will, therefore, be of interest. Summarised, it is as follows:-This prelude to a Cornish story happening in the middle of the 18th Century, ~, When the coast population was almost . beyond the reach of civilisation, exhibits the three predominant moods of the Celts at that epoch: Romance, religious férvour, and cruelty. It opens with the "Wreckers" theme, its fierce, abrupt energy leading into a characteristic horn call, used among them as a signal. ‘The music gradually quietens down and the cor anglais (horn) ushers.in the beautiful Cornish melody associated with the personality of Mark, the young fisher-man-hero, which occurs in the opera when the mood is tender, yearning, or lofty. A pianissimo, hurrying, rhythmie figure leads gradually to the second of the moods referred to in the "Revival Hymn’: a broad, exultant melody, such as might conceivably spring into life at a particular moment of extreme religious fervour, as at 2 Wesleyan Revival. At its conclusion the "Wreckers" theme reappears, and gradually merges int the rhythm of the fierce, heavy date associated in the minds of the da¥ters with shipwrecks and stabbing of victims. At the end of the oyverture the "Wreckers" theme is used. with the Revival Hymn (showing the compatability in these minds of wrecking and religion), and with that note triumphant the overture ends. The rendering to be played at 2YA is by the British Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of the composer herself, who describes the present-day quickening of intelligence and growth of curiosity in the realm of music as entirely owing to radio and the gramophone, and an unmitigated blessing. "The Wreckers" overture will also be featured in 3YA’s programme on Thursday, November 8, this recording also. being by the British Symphony Orchestra.