PERSONALITIES of the week

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 41, 19 April 1935, Page 10

PERSONALITIES

of the week

The Native Returns -) OHN COATES, "Arch-Chanter John," as Sir Edward Elgar styled him, is one of the most appealing of living singers and considers he owes much to his mother’s influence. She once gave him an old singer’s advice"Read the words," she said when he was about to sing a song he had never seen before. This he now does invariably with the result that many songs submitted to him are condemned before. the music is looked at. Some years ago Mr. Coates went back to his native Yorkshire village and had a look over the church where he began his musical career as a chorister. The verger asked his name, and he replied that he was John Coates, a singer, but that evidently conveyed nothing. "I used ty be in the choir here," he added, "but I've got on a bit since then." "As ’ta 2 good job?" asked the verger. "Not so bad,’ answered John, "I’m © still

singing." ~The verger paused to consider what might constitute a good job at singing, then asked, almost with awe, "‘’Appen, then, tha’s in t’? Leeds choir?" Dixon’s Signature Tune REGINALD DIXON, organist at the Tower Ballroom, Blackpool, has a most appropriate signature tune, "I Do Like to Be Besids the Seaside.’ The point about Reginald Dixon is that he is the only "cinema organist’ who can

broadeast in the evenings. By this means he is of great assistance to the B.B.C. The real cinema organists are hampered, of course, by the fact that films are being shown at these times. The Tower buildings are owned by the Blackpool Gorporation, and although they were built in the late Victorian era, they are still modern and pleasing. A number of cafes, restaurants, exhibitions, and even a zoo and an aquarium all find a place, but the ballroom, with its mammoth "cinema organ" is the real attraction. A Few ‘‘Coward-isms’’ GIR HDNRY COWARD, until lately conductor of the famous Sheffield Choir, had some, amusing andl sometimes, embaryassing mannerisms. At rehearsal he was most impulsive. He had an inexhaustible store of epithets -"You miserable tenors," he would call out, "afraid of a top G." "You Sing it as if you were all club-footed," he occasionally told the basses. ‘Don’t talk to that lady; if she’s not marked her copy, don’t remind her; leave her to her conscience." "I told you to mark it ‘forte’," he shouts in a rage, to a timid-voiced soprano. "It is marked ‘forte,’ ’? she ventures to say. "Well then, why don’t you fort?" he retorts amid laughter. "Hello! here is the recurring decimal again," he remarks ag an habitual’ late-comer makes her way to her seat. Instinct v. Interpretation I IKE her fellow-artist, Paul Robeson, 4 : Anderson was born to H] heritage of such singing as originally inspired the "spirituals,’ and where others have recourse to "interpreta-

tion," she has but to call upon her instinct, and, again like Robeson, this instinct carries Miss Anderson smoothly into the difficult field of lieder singing and the realm of grand opera, and again she triumphs. It is when we ar. privileged to hear such artists as M Robeson and Miss Anderson that it i@most strongly borne upon. us how slanderous it is to attribute to the same source as the "spirituals" that item of American exports known as "swampstuff." "Winnie Speaking!’’ }yVERY radio listener ought to make it his business to give "Winnie" (Mr. Harry Hemsley’s dream child) a hearing. How he manages to carry on the whole family discussion (minus mother, of course) is the famous child impersonator’s secret. Naturally, he ‘.is a prime favourite with B.B.C. listeners. In his London broadcasts he reads from script, which has previously been submitted for approval. He naturally takes note of any official blwe pencillings (they rarely occur), and ite does his best to follow the script, but one or the other of his imaginary children may be suddenly inspired to say something that does not figure in the copy, and without any hesitation he gives voice to whatever happens to be in her mind. 85 Not Out! O mention of the old-time musichalls could ever be made without the name of Charles Coborn at once springing to the mind, for he was one of the brightest stars in the variety constellation of nearly half a century ago. A great comedian then, he still, at the age of 85, retains much of his cld boisterous personality. Mr. © Coborn’s recordings conjure up scenes of a smoke-filled, old-time music-hall, glasses clinking, and the chairman knocking with his mallet for silence: as he rises to announce the next iteiiy The original sibger of "Two Black Iyes": and "The Man Wh Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" is a lay-reader at his church, and a vigorous long-distance hiker. Loves Opera OW in his prime, Dennis Noble is a native of Bristol, whose Cathedral school he attended with good results when a youngster. He was later specially trained for an _ operatic career by Dinh. Gilly. Although cpera has done much to make his name vvell known-he has figured in grand cera roles at Covent Garden and ail cver Burope-his amazing las contributed considerably to his universal appeal among all types of music lovers. His first appearance on the stage was in a London musical comedy in 1923. But his real love is for the

more serious types of music and his favourite parts are Rigoletto and Elder Germont in "La Traviata." He is 2 fine cricketer and devoted to his motor car, Menuhin’s Master FOLLOWING a course of musical study from the age of four under ‘i most able tutor, Louis Persinger, the famous violinist, Yehudi Menuhin went to Paris at the age of seven or eight to recéive the inestimable benefit of training under Georges Enesco. This great -Roumanian violinist, ‘conductor and composer,’ born in 1881, displayed rare musical talents at a very tender age, and as a boy was already a violin. virtuoso. As a composer he has dug deep into the folk music of his own country ; his insight into the more con-

ventional music of Western Europe has not in any way modified his enthusiasm for the folk songs of his own country. His vivid music is sadly missed on the records. It is high time it was recorded, ' The Amateur Tradition ORD. BEACONSFIELD raised peacocks; Mr. Joseph Chamberlain

grew orchids; Mr. Stanley Baldwin breeds pigs; and in this he is resembled

by one of the most recent additions to the ranks of New Zealand’s§ Elder Legislators. Perhaps it is a symbol. Pigs and a brisk, determined geniality were the banners behind which Mr. Baldwin originally marched into office. The Inglish always prefer some. one, who is something, to be really something else; this is called the amuateur tradition, and is a sure safeguard against the grave menace of professionalism. Their statesmen are reeruited from the crowded ranks of successful competitors at local: flower shows and other equally improbable sources. It is a grand tradition of inconsequence.