MAINLY ABOUT PEOPLE AND PROGRAMME FEATURES

Radio Record, Volume VII, Issue 18, 10 November 1933, Page 42

MAINLY ABOUT PEOPLE AND PROGRAMME FEATURES

ERCULES at ‘a very early age showed his prowess, for when Juno sent two serpents to destroy him in his eradle, the infant hero strangled them with his hands. After he became father of several children, Juno’s vengeance still pursued him and she drove him insane, and while in this state he killed his children. His grief was so great that he went into voluntary exile and was purified by Thes-

pius. Later the oracle at Delphi ordered him to serve Eurystheus fot twelve years, during which he performed the Twelve Labours. After his release he became the servant of Omphale, Queen of Lydia, and lived with her in an effeminate manner, he wearing woman’s clothes, while Omphale put on Hercules’ lion skin. In the programme at 1YA onoNovember 13 is "Le Roeut d’ Omphale" (Omphale’s Spinning Wheel) a beautiful tone poem pased on the legend of Hercules’ enslavement to the queen. The composer warns us not to take his musie as literally depicting Hercules’ fall, since the motif is meant primarily to illustrate the seductiveness of woman and the struggle between weakness and strength. The charm, suppleness and freshness of this work is Saint-Saens at his best. % oe * [NCLUDED in the programme at 2YA on. November 14 is the Ballet Suite, "The Sleeping Beauty," one of the most popular of Tschaikowsky’s lighter compositions.

The work We" commissioned by the directors of the Imperial Opera, in 1888, when the famous Ballet was at _ its zenith, and productions were given as much thought and care, and as lavish a scale as any opera. Success or failure meant as much to the composer as any other concerned, and Tschaikowsky took his commission very seriously. He retired to the country and spent six industrious weeks over

it. The result was a full-sized entertainment in a prologue and three acts, so that the fairy-tale that we know needed some filling out to fit so large a work. It is due to this that unfamiliar names appear in the ballet. It was produced in 1890 in the presence of the Imperial family, and though Tschaikowsky spoke of the music as among some of his best, it was rather coolly received. It steadily grew in

favour, however, to become one of his most popular works, and remains so to this day. mm * * N Jack Payne’s radio party, which is being presented at 2YA on November 15, Peggy Cochrane’s name figures as one of the guests. Miss Cochrane was an infant prodigy, though one is not permitted to mention the fact in her presence. At five years of age

she played the piano, and at seven she was an accomplished violinist, showing so mugh promise that Professor Leopold Auer, who discovered Mischa Elman, offered her a scholarship at Petrograd. She preferred London, however, and won a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music instead, where she was awarded the Dove Prize for the most distinguished student. She shows a versatility that is rare in English musicians, and

a typical evening's work may be the playing of a violin concerto at Queen’s Hall and subsequently appearance in a cabaret as syucopating pianist in a radio act. She has appeared on the stage with headlines announcing both violin and pianoforte performances. Music does not occupy all her time, for she loves dogs, dancing and decoration, and to her hobbies she gives most of her spare moments. a * * HERE are none who are not familiar with the lilting "Barcarolle" and many other melodies in the "Tales of Hoffman," a recorded version of an alrrangement of some of the well-known numbers of which will be heard in the dinner-music hour at 2YA on November 14. Jacques Offenbach, the composer, was the son of a Jewish cantor, and he began to earn his living playing ‘he violin and ’cello in German orchestras. When 17 years of age he went to Paris and began there a ‘rather disreputable but notable career." Most of his com-

panions throughout his life were the unfortunates of the world. Hoffman was a real personage, and in a sense the hero of the tales he wrote. He was a remarkable man, and, if possible, more disreputable than Offenbach.