PERSONALITIES of the week

Radio Record, Volume IX, Issue 15, 18 October 1935, Page 10

PERSONALITIES

of the week

4 . CASELLA ON JAZZ. ALFREDO CASELLA, composer, ~ eritie, tutor, pianist, conductor and author, is one of the most striking personalities in modern Italian mysieal art. Born at Turin on July 25. 1883, Casella owes his education almost entirely te Franee, where he studied piano with Diemer and composition with Gabriel Panre at the Paria ConServatoire. He has made highly successful tours as a planist in Kurope and America, As a conductor he bas held the baton ever some of the most famous orchestras in the worlg. He has taught advanced pianoforte classes at the Paris Conservatoire and at the Liceo Musigale di Santa Cecilia * in Rome, Gasella’s "modernist" tendencies go hand in hand with a keen

appreciation of the classics. Writing in 1980, Casella said: "Jazz must be e¢onsidered pot only as an important phenomenon in musical history, but also as an immense progress which has been accompiished in music of the more popular type. I do not hesitate to say that I vonsider American jazz as a potential ecucationa] means for the masses. [1 is to be seen. however. what it will become in the future, whether it wil] remain dance music, or whether its te-hnique will be able to serve as a base of a symphonic or theatrical art. Tris is a problem which does not deperid upon the European to solve, and i recall here the flights of Stravinsky. Windmith, Ravel and of myself in an attempt to write a European conception of the blues, and our complete failure in this, The sclution falls upou the American." Alfredo Casella, pianist, will be heard from 4YA on Friday, October 25, SONTAG’S DESCENDANT. AUMSABETH SCHUMANN, whom all listeners know as one of the most charming sopranos on the records, comes of a musical family, and is descended from Henrietta Sontag. the .famous soprano of Beethoven's day Musie is therefore in the blood Sontag herself came of parents who were actors. and she was destined at an early age for the stage, and first appeared in children’s parts. It is a remarkable coincidence that the descendant of .so illustrious a star of a century ago should to-day be also scoring successes in the same roles on the opera stage and on the concert platform, Henrietta

married a diplomat, Mlisabeth married 2 eonduetor. Conductors are usually also diplomats. EHlisabeth Schumann ones at 1YA on Wednesday, October MILLIONAIRE COMPOSER. Q*5 hears so much complaint about "™ the downtrodden composer that it is of interest to read that Jerome Kern, of "Showboat," "Music in the Air," ete,, fame, not many years ago paid over six thousand pounds fcr a reputed Goldsmith manuscript. it seems that Mr. Kern included this precious item with the rest of his notable private eoliection of rare books and manuscripts, the sale of which subsequently netted him nearly two million dollars. The purchaser of the questionable Goldsmith autograph returned jt to Mr. Kern, who had then to attempt some kind of adjustment with the dealer from whom he purchased. it. Giving the public what it likes in the musical line certainly pays. Jerome Kern conducts some of his own musie at LYA on Wednesday, October 23. PHILIP FROM ST, ANNE’S. ORN at St, Anne’s-on-Sea, in 1896. ' Philip Wade, actor and playwright, was educated partly in his native Lancashire at Arnold House, Blackpool, and latterly at the United College, Bradford, which, as everybody should know, is on the other side of the Pennine Range. in Yorkshire. No wonder he won out! During the war he served

for two and a half years at Kut-al-Amara, Bagdad, and on the borders of Kurdistan with the 6th Battalian Loyal North Lancashire Regiment; After the war he joined that best of avademies for aspiring actors, Sir Frank Benson"s company (1919-21), and .acted with various managements in London, and visited. the United States with Charles

B, Cochran’s production of "This Year of Grace." He first broadcast in. 1925. Since then he has "made noises" before the microphone jn Cockney, Lancashire, Scots, Welsh, Devonshire, American Yiddish, Indian, Chinese and Mayfair, (really this doesn’t say much for his} efforts at the United College, Bradford ; but, then, perhaps Yorkshire is not permitted to be broadcast!), Philip Wade will be heard in the role of a taxi-driver, . in a B.B.C. recorded play. "West End Cabaret," at 8YA, on Friday, October Be . JUST FOR FUN. (5 EORGE BAKER tells us he began recording just for fun. Haydn Draper, the now-famous _ clarinet player, and he were fellow students at

the Royal College of Music. They were interested in gramophones, he cause in their student days the change over from cylinders to discs had just taken place. One afternoon Draper suggested that they might have a bit of fun by going to a gramophone company and asking for a test. They made thelr way to the old Pathe Freres studio in Lamb’s, Conduit Street, off Theobald’s* Road. Baker was 21 at the time, and had just come from Birkenhead with a four years’ scholar: ship. He was wearing a cap, and must have looked_like a big schoolboy, However; he was given an audition and sang "Tommy Lad." The accompanist put him down as an "extra specia singer of "Tommy Lad." This ulti: mately led to a contract, and his career as a recording artist started in earnest. Ifow he made his three thousand records, under his own and sundry other names, George Baker tells with 1 wealth of interesting detail in "The Gramophone." He will be heard on the air from 1YA on Saturday, October 26. THE DUKE’S FRIEND, HE Duke of Kent, who so recently beeame a proud father. numbers among his friends the famous American) Pianist and dance band conductor Charlie Kunz. One night, sitting a the piano in the Chez Hotel, Charlie constantly had request numbers whlspered in his ear by a‘patron. He played a few, until at last the voice requested a number from an American show in town just then, which the band

ye Was not, as yet, allowed to feature, Charlie turned round and said:---"We're not allowed to play that," Later to his astonishment, he learned fram the boys that he had spoken to none other than Prince George. Immediately he offered his apologies, These were graciously accepted, and since then Charlie and the Prince have become very good friends, One of the leader’s proudest possessions is a signed photograph of his "request" patron who has since become H R.H. the Duke of Kent. Charlie Kunz, pianist, will be heard from 2¥A, on Friday, October 23, QUENTIN THE SECOND. HEN he was 21, Alexander Morvaren (Alick) Maclean composed a three-act opera on the subject of Stott's * novel, "Quentin Durward." Under that

name the work won the prize offered by the Moody-Manners Opera Company for the best romantic opera. In course of time the young composer (who was to become a noted English conductor) took unto himself a wife, and a son who blessed this union was named after the hero of father’s prize opera. Quentin Maclean, like hig romantic namesake, had cause to be grateful to the Continent for equipping him for the splendid career he now pursues, He is one of our finest concert organists, and will be heard from 2¥A on Saturday, October 26,