PERSONALITIES of the week

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 28, 18 January 1935, Page 8

PERSONALITIES

of the week

STRENUOUS FOR SZIGETI FoR the average novelist a ‘three months’ lecture tour in America is an’event; he will spend years recuperating from it and talking about it. But musicians are all over the world all the time. Joseph Szigeti on his last long tour swore he would never do again what he had to do in New Zealand for example. His rushing round was tremendously strenuous as his initial broadcast through the Board’s stalion started many centres clamouring for recitals. On his way home during his 55 minutes’ stav at Honolulu he gave a recital. At Tokio he broadcast the first violin recital given from the new model studio. He found Shanghai full of refugees and menaced with an epidemic. In Peiping he had to rehearse in the Grand Hotel kitchen and he iust missed an earthquake at Los Angeles. ° , McEACHERN STORIES ])MALCcoLm McPACHERN, bassa, or "Mr. Flotsam" of the prosperous concert known as "Flotsam and Jetsam," is a real tale spinner. Here are a few :-It is said that even the highest executives at the B.B.C. get exasperated with each other at times: Two of them were on inspection patrol recent-

ly. One said: "Is that a cigarette butt on the floor there?" The other said: "It is, smoke it if you like; I won’t look." A radio star, seeing rows of fresh cod lying on a fishmonger’s slab, their eyes glassy and their mouths wide open, exclaimed-‘Heavens! that reminds me. I’ve got to broadcast at St. George’s Hall!" Here’s the American version of "Pop Goes the Weasel": "Half a pound of radio rice, no matter what the cost be; mix it up and make it nice, Bing goes the Crosby!’ A GREAT "NORMA" ORN of Italian parents who had emigrated’ to America, Rosa PopseHe first won fame as a vaudeville artist, but before she was twenty-two she had made her operatic debut in Verdi’s "The Force of Destiny," in which she appeared with Caruso. Her success was instantaneous, and since then her singing of such roles as "La Giacondo," "Norma," and "Aida," has been the outstanding sensation of the Metropolitan Opera: House. New York. She has a voice of exceptionally wide range and of exquisite warmth. Her technique is phenomenal, and she is the first singer since Lillie Lehmann to cope successfully with the tremendous difficulties of the title role in Bellini’s "Norma." This opera is laid in ancient Britain in Druidic times. "MARVELLOUS MYRA" ew artists, British or Wuropean, could carry off the honours of an evening devoted to classical music with ketter right and with more distinction that the London-born pianist, Myra: Hess. Making her debut at Queen’s! Hall under Sir Thomas Beecham in 1907, from that moment it was recognised .that a very fine pianist, though as yet little more than a girl, had definitely arrived. The early critics were right, she quicl¢y took her place as a master pianist both in England and abroad-particularly in America where she is sure of a great welcome every time she appears, Myra Hess is a pupil of the renowned Tobias Matthay, who has more really brilliant pianists to his credit than any other living teacher at Home or elsewhere. THE WORLD’S BEST ASKED to. ndme the two quartets which, more than any others, have contributed to the modern revival of ‘interest in chamber-musi¢c, one would unhesitatingly pick out the Flonzaley -and the Lener. The first-named alas, is now disbanded. At its institution, the four players vowed never to apnear as soloists nor to have any truck with performances other than those of the Flonzaley Quartet itself, Its existence’ was made possible, in this utilitarian world, by the patronage of Edouard de Coppet. The quattet’s name is taken from its generous patron’s Swiss chalet

on Lake Geneva. Founded jn 1903, the quartet devoted its entire talents and energies for no less than a quarter of a century to the perfection of playing of chamber music. a UP FROM NOTHING "QNE little nigger boy, left all alone, the bailiffs took the tent he slept in, and then there was none," This was the fate of a juvenile dancer in America who danced for next to nothing in a circus and woke one morning to find the tent that housed him had been borne away by the broker’s men. Rid‘ing on the train buffers four hundred miles, he at long last dropped off the train to meet in a wayside saloon one who was to.be hig partner in vaudeville in after life. Seott conspired with the barman, Whalley, and the result was a descent upon New York (per rail truck without paying, of course). The fame they sought in America came not, but in Portsmouth, England, the great day dawned when their value was , really discerned and their name was 1, made. A. YOUNG MAESTRO ARELY emerged from his child prodigy days, Yehudi Menuhin is already considered one of the fore- _ most violinists of our time.. At two his* preference for the violin became manifest, at 8 he was given a toy ‘violin which he smashed because it didn’t sound right and at 4 he began lessons on a real violin under Louis Persinger. At 7 he appeared jin his first important concert with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. A wear later he played at the ‘Metropolitan Opera House, and, followinz that event, was taken abroad by his parents for further study in Paris with the celebrated Roumanian violinist Wnesco. Upon his return he set the musical world agog by his playing of the Beethoven Violin concerts with the \ New York Symphony Orchestra. In the years that followed Yehudi became the toast of the musical world. He is now 18.