PERSONALITIES of the week

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 26, 4 January 1935, Page 8

PERSONALITIES

of the week

A MUSICAL CREDO. FRED HARTLEY’S views on playing dance tunes "straight" are interesting. He says: "My policy is that I always try to select the most attractive tunes I can find. If they happen to be dance tunes, that does not affect me one way or the other. Some of .the popular dance numbers, provided their appeal is in the tune and not in ‘the ‘rhythm, are much preferable to a great deal of the conventional "teatime" music. I believe that I was one of the first to play dance tunes with a "straight" combination, and I was certainly the first to borrow the dance lands’ idea of utilising a vocal chorus. In this way I have modernised the old-fashioned quintet and revived it.

TEETOTALLER ; LFYRED PICCAVER, for all _ his foreign sounding name, is an Wnglishman born, being a native of Liscolnshire, where his family has been known for generations. It is believed that his is the only family of that name in Wngland. He is 46, and for nearly 20 years he was leading tenor in the Vienna State Opera, resigning In 1931 Ge tis a lifelong teetotaller and nonsmoker, and except for occasional brief visits to London he has done al! lis singing abroad. He is anxious to see the world and may some day look in ou us here in New Zealand. Meanwhile we hear his splendid records over the radio. WITH HUMOUR’. a K,RNST VON DOHNANYI was only . 20 years old when he made his first appearance as a concert pianist, stepping at once into the very front rank of executants. A year later, having won laurels in all the principal music centres of Germany and AustriaHungary, he appeared with no less success in London, and in 1899 in the United States. As a composer he is known by hig fresh and attractive music for his own instrument. Although making comparatively little use of actual folk ‘tunes, most of his music is strongly characteristic of his native Hungary ; it is all distinguished not only by very able craftsmanship put by a genuine sift of invention, flavoured with a happy sense of laughter. Dohnanyi’s music has been steadily gaining wider recognition for a good many years. ONCE A SHOEMAKER APOLLO GRANFORTE is one of the most brilliant operatic baritones vf the day. He is a native of Italy, but when he was 18 years of age he became dissatisfied and emigrated "9 South America. Here he worked with his brother as a shoemaker, .but he was aided by a rich and friendiy stranger who had heard him singing the "canzone" of his native land. Granforte studied hard and was always excessively critical of his own singing. After the war wus over he ‘resumed Lis singing studies, and he has sung with great success throughout Italy. Wis tour with the britliant company of stars which the late Dame Nellie Melba organised in Australia enhanced his. already enviable reputation. No one who met him personally will ever forget his ready friendliness and desire to . please, A VERSATILE VIRTUOSO How much Kreisler has done to, en: rich the repertoire of the modern solo violinist must long ago have been abundantly clear to listeners from the

frequency with which his name appears as composer or arranger of violin pieces. His career hus been an astonishing one. At seven he made bis first concert appearance, the same year he * entered the Vienna Conservatoire when only half the minimum age fixed for admission. At 10 he was the youngest. ever to Win the gold medal for violin nlaying. Two years later he walked off with the first Prix de Rome of the Paris Conservatoire against 40 adult competitors, After successful: concert tours he gave up music for a time, studying medicine and painting, and in . the end he became a cavalry officer. In fact, Kreisler is one of those fortunate ones who would make a success of almost anything he undertook. PRIDE OF BRUSSELS ©. B&USSELS is very rightly proud of that fine team of artists, the Pro Arte String Quartet, each a distinguished solo player and teacher of his instrument. ‘The personnel is’ Al- | pbhonse Onnou, violin, Laurent Halleux, violin, Germain Prevost, viola, and Marcel Maas, ’cello. It has remained unchanged for some years, and constant rehearsal and performance together has made this one of the wortd’3 quartets whose complete sympathy of ideals and ‘understanding of one another produces ensemble playing as nearly perfect as this generation has heard. Their repertoire includes practically all the best music’ which has ever been composed for the string quartet, though for some .years they have devoted much of their time and gifts to the propagation of the newest music, CHOIRBOY-CONDUCTOR MAJOR GEORGE MILLER, musical director of -H.M. Grenadier Guards Band, began his musical career as a _chorister at St.. George's Chapel, Windsor, at the age of eight, " He is the fourth generation of his | family to serve in the army, who have served under six British Sovereigns, from George the Third to George the Fifth, He soon became boy soloist, singing at all the Royal marriages and other State functions for seven years. So excellent and sweet was his voice that he’ was chosen to sing Mendelssohn’s "I Waited for the Lord" with Madame Albani. When his voice broke voung George was sent to Germany for three years for ‘musie study. Having made up his mind to follow in the steps of his forbears and become a bandmaster, he enlisted in the Sixtieth Rifles. We has conducted the bands of the Thirty-second Regiment, Royal ArtilJery and the First Life Guards.