PERSONALITIIES of the week

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 43, 3 May 1935, Page 8

PERSONALITIIES

of the week

A Silly Nickname . PUILIP GUBDALA, in a penetrating study of Dean Inge, ascribes a novel cause to the nickname by which he is world famed. "Here was a man," Mr. Guedala says, "without a paper to his name (for it can hardly be that st. Pauls Cathedral has a _ parish mliigazine), who usurped the authority of the omniscient gentlemen who write leading articles and undertook to lec-. ture his fellow-countrymen on their iffairs. Any journalist could see that the claim was preposterous, .and had to be denied. The man was demonstrably a black-leg. So they conspired to call him the ‘Gloomy Dean.’ It was 2 silly nickname. But it has stuck... . But you cannot dismiss an intelligent and articulate man with a nickname, and the Dean’s point of view is often an opinion to be reckoned with."

"Like a’ Dream’’ ""GOMETIMES it does seem. ‘like a dream, I can hardly believe ic is really I," Florence Austral once confessed after a triumph ata big musical festival, "It has been hard and continwous jyork, the constant worry of: whether the ladder could ever be scaled in

safety.’ Born Florence Mary Wilsou, on the suggestion of Henry Higgins, of Covent Garden, she adopted the name of Austral, Spending her early life in an environment in which great music was never: heard, Madame Austral sang ballads and little songs at amuteur and chureh concerts. In 1918 she entered the Ballarat competitions, and up to this time she had never heard an opera. Her great success at Bailarat led her to Melbourne, and study, then on to London, where, in four short years, she made her operatic debut as Brunnhilde. "In the Speaker’ EONARD GOWINGS, tenor, has a favourite niece who lives at Chiswick, a few miles from London. Once, after a recital at 2LO, he went by taxi ‘to see her. She was in the nursery when her mother came in and said: "fflere’s Uncle Leonard." "It can’t be," she quickly replied, "he’s in the londspeaker!" Mr. Gowings has the unique distinction of having his eldest daughter on H.M.V. records as well as himself. Miss Margaret, when 16, made a beautiful record which consists of recitations from Shelley, Blake, Leigh Hunt and Shakespeare. Leonard’s worst weakness is a proneness to make spoonerisms. .In a speech at a social gathering, he referred to a scoutmaster and "his scoop of boy trouts,"’ The Dolmetsches DOWN at Haslemere, in Surrey, Arnold Dolmetsch, the well-known ex--pert on the musie and musical instruments of earlier times, has established his own workshop, where, under conditions far removed from the push and bustle of to-day, be and his family make sych old instruments as viols and harpsichords and clavichords, He is not only, however, a rare craftsman ; he is a delicate musician, a fine and purist interpreter of early music. It is an exnerience not easilv forgotten to’ be present at Haslemere ‘when the summer festival of old music is.in progress. All the family take part-for

Mr. Dolmetsch has re-established in his own household the domestic consort of the 17th century. Every member "does" something iu a musical sense. Tauber to Marry mpi cables announce the engage? .nment of Richard Tauber, noted German tenor, to Miss Diana Napier, the film actress. When gramophiles were electrified some eight years ago by the freshness and spontaneity. this young German gaye to the Schubert song cycle, "Lhe Winter’ Journey," many among them immediately appreciated that a new favourite had arrived. The lustre of this’ masterpiece remains undimmed, and is still appreciated by radio listeners or gramophone owners wherever it is heard. Tauber has since bowed to. popular taste, but his voice and artistry have something of the "philosopher’s stone," for they turn to gold that which would be but dross in a lesser artist’s hands. In his 48rd year, Richard Tauber should make a steady husband. "Here's wishing him the: best! t Historian M,P. Me. PHILIP. GUEDALA maintains we can hardly be too grateful to Mr, Winston Churchill for his lively presentation of Jistory, ‘In his naval history gunnery -grows. wildly thrilling under his vivid touch and there is nothing better in dramatic writing than von Spee’s discovery of the battiecruisers at the Falkland Islands. "A few minutes later a terrible apparition broke upon German eyes. Rising from

behind the promontory, sharply visible in the clear air, were a pair of tripod masts. One glance was enough, They meant certain death. The day was beautifully fine, and from the tops the horizon extended thirty or forty miles in every direction. There was no hope for victory, There was no chance of escape. A month before another admiral and his sailors had suffered a similar experience." "A Violin Virtuoso’"’ N the 1890’s Bronislaw Hubernya was the prodigy violinist of the i jay exactly as Yehudj Menuhin is th these present years. To-day’ he igs one of the greatest violinists known in history, for his gifts have developed and

in two respects his powers have be- | come superior perhaps to those of any other violinist since Paganini and Joachim. He is a Pole and is 53. At seven he played a Spohr concerto and took | part in chamber music. Brahms was in the audience when the boy played his yiolin concerto. ‘Telling the young artist to come and see him next day aud bring his autograph album with him, Brahms wrote in it a few bars from the work and added this most gracious inscription: "Yo the talented violin-virtuoso, Bronislaw Hubermann, in memory of his delighted and grateful listener, Johannes Brahms." Thus at thirteen Hubermann was called a performer of genius by a composer of genius who was very much disinclined to praise unduly, and usually had a holy horror of youthful musical prodigies. The next year the boy was appointed Court Violinist to the Queen of Roumania, an amazing distinction for one still of school age. A few years later Hubermann was invited by the municipality of Genoa to play en Paganini’s violin at a concert in the city. a special law being passed to permit of its: temporary removal from the Town Tfall. Reinstated "THE son of Professor Adolf Furt‘Wangler, a German authority on archaeology, Dr. Wilhelm Furtwangler, the noted conductor, was born in Berlin in' 1886. His training and general musical experience is second to none among even the most thorough and efficient artists of his native land.

He is a welcome "guest" conductor wherever he goes and is a favourite in London. In December he was compelled by differences of opinion with the Nazi authorities to resign his directorship of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Prussian State Opera House. A recent cable reports that he has been reinstated and conducts the Philharmonic Orchestra forthwith. This able German conductor is also a composer with a symphony and an elaborate "Te Deum" to his credit. Grainger v. Backhaus WHEN Perey Grainger heard young HWileen Joyce, the Tasmanianborn pianist. his verdict was: "The most trauscendentally gifted child 1 have heard in twenty-five years." ani he advised that she go to America. Then Backhaus heard her; he endorsed the verdict, but not the advice. voting in Leipsig. Leipsig it was to be, Through the good offices of a theatre manager, who organised a concert tour in the hope that it would Secure the funds for the European xpedition, the once penniless Hileen yett Australia with £900 to her name. When the money was dwindling down _1o a little more than nothing she left Leipsiz. for London, where «a number of friendly people assisted her to her present fame