PERSONALITIES of the week

Radio Record, Volume IX, Issue 14, 11 October 1935, Page 10

PERSONALITIES

of the week

BUSONI’S SUCCESSOR HERE has been nothing sensational in the career of Artur Schnabel, pianist, whose inevitable rise to his present position has been one of steady . advancement. He was born in 1882 was already a mature virtuoso at 16, and has since made world tours as a pianist without a superior and 2 Beethoven player without an equal; yet it is only within ‘recent years that musicians have begun to realise that they may not need to.look beyond Schnabel to find the man to fill the void Busoni left. For Schnabel, as was Busoni, is that rare type, the virtuoso who is scholar as well, and his interpretations are, in consequence, reare(l upon the firmest of foundations. In Germany he is known, too, as a composer in the modern manner and of great originality. He will be heard from 4YA on Friday, October 18. FEW REAL CONTRALTOS SoPHIp BRASLAU, the famous American contralto, has said that there are few real contraltos. "Most of the singers who pose as such are mezzo-sopranos," she says. "Many of these fine singers try to affect a contralto quality by singing in what can only be described as a mannish tone. Some of them succeed in sounding like female baritones, but that is far from the true quality of the contralto voice. ‘God either made you ag contralto or He didn’t. Trying to change a good mezzo-soprano or dramatic voice into a real contralto is just as successful as dyeing your hair. You get the colour but it isn’t real, and the public knows intuitively that it isn’t real." Sophie Braslau will be heard from 1YA on Sunday, October 13.

THE TEAM SPIRIT ‘TH magnificent male voice quartet, who, together with their talerted pianist, comprise the Comedy Harmonists, are, in the matter of artistic merit and of financial management, true "co-ops." All their work is done on the principle of share and share .alike,

and the quintet are agrsed that much of their success is due to the clever arrangements written specially for them by their pianist, Brwin Bi otz, a brilliant ex-pupil of the Academy who has composed several of their greatest hits. He is assisted in the yocal part

writing by Harry Frommerman (who launched. the Comedy Harmonists in 1928, after eight months’ unceasing rehearsal), In this Herr Frommerman is assisted by the third tenor, Wrich A.

Collin. The first tenor, Ari Leschnikoff, is a Bulgarian, whilst the baritone, Roman Cy.cowski, is a Pole. The others are all Germans. They have all the Continental engagements they can possibly fill at £200 a week, Wh» will deny that they are well worth it? 4YA listeners will hear the Comedy WUarmonists on Tuesday, October 15. OPERATIC TRAGEDY [fz was a most distraught Agatha (the heroine of "Der Freischutz"’) who quite recently learned at the close of her performance at Covent Garden that her 77-year-old father, while sitting in the stalls, had collapsed and died. Such was the double tragedy participated in by Miss Eva Turner, the English prima donna. She was a Lancashire girl, her father an engineer in an Oldham cotton mill. True, both her parents were musical, and as a child she showed an aptitude for playing and singing. A change of position for her father as chief engineer in a big Bristol cotton mill made a musical career for Eva a possibility. Musical training led her to the Royal Academy of Musie in London, where they later elected ~her an F.R,A.M. She joined the chorus of

the Carl Rosa Opera Company on tour. Private coaching soon saw her taking principal roles in London performances. The London critics were left ."cold"but one night the doorkeeper told her ; that a Signor Ponizza had been in | front and would like to meet her-she couldn’t imagine why. ‘The burden of his visit was to induce Eva to go to Italy to sing before Toscannini. She went. with her tutor, and sang for the maestro the only air she‘knew in Ita-lian-an aria from "Aida." On the strength of this Toscannini engaged her for the following season at a famous opera house. From Milan she went to tour Germany, where the critics, unlike those of her own country, saluted her, and: the. company became known as the "Turner" company. Recognised at long last in her own country Bva Turner is now our "English prima donna." OUR BELOVED VETERAN NE might almost call Peter Dawson a veteran, he has been recording so long. Despite his thirty-one years at it, the amazing thing is that he has never lost his popularity. He started\ in the days when the H.M.V. F were known as the Gramophone and Typewriter Co., Ltd., and their recording studio was a sort of impromptu affair at the top of a city warehouse. His first recorded song was "Long Ago

in Alcala"-long forgotten now by most } people. In those far-away days his voice was so suited. to the crude apparatus in use that he made records for this company and their associate companies under many different names. Some readers may remember a Scottish

comedian who used to imitate Sir (then Mr.) Harry Lauder, under the name of Hector Grant. That man was none other than Peter Dawson, and it Was not until fifteen years later that Sir Harry discovered his famous imitator’s identity, when the "culprit," at a meeting in thé studio, suddenly broke into broad Scots and started to sing one of the former’s songs. Both 1YA and 8YA listeners will hear Peter Dawson on Thursday, October 17, and Monday, October 14, respectively. AN "TMPRESSIONIST" JANE CARR, described on her recording as an "impressionist," is the perfect type of Wnglish girl, flawlegs and sparkling. She is one of the stage’s finest beauties; like a sunny day on the South Downs, with her

~ abundance of pale golden hair, and an irresistible nose. ‘The teeth are perfect. She is slim and tall; her speaking voice is charming, and as _ she is but twenty-five, a most promising career appears to be opening up before her. As a broadcaster and an actress on the London stage, she has already enjoyed considerable success. She lives in one of London’s new luxury blocks of flats near the Marbie Arch. 2YA listeners will hear her on Friday, October 18, LEONARD’S ONE TRAGEDY T,BZONARD HENRY, comedian, writes many of his own songs and confesses: "As you are writing you can hear the chuckles of delighted audiences, your ears tingle to the bursts.

of applause you are going to receive, and you know it is going: to be one of those ‘request’ items that you will have to sing again and again. That is tlw one tragedy of a good comic song. ‘Ihe singer gets heartily sick of it long ]iefore the public does, You trot out ail the little jokes you have made hundred of times and wonder however pevyl can raise even a wan smile at them But they do, bless ’em, And that’x why I go on writing songs." Leonard Henry will tickle the risible faculties of 1YA listeners on Wednesday, October 16.