PERSONALITIES of the WEEK

Radio Record, 3 July 1936, Page 10

PERSONALITIES of the WEEK

Quite English THERE are many who imagine that, as her name does not sound English, Miss Isolde Menges is of some mid-European nationality, and they speculate which country gave her birth, "I was born at Hove, near Brighton," she says, "and the principal part of my musical education was taken at Brighton under my father’s tuition. My father had a. large music school in Brighton, and he and my mother both gave instruction. He being a compatriot of Wagner, was naturally an ardent admirer of the great creative composer, who made Bayreuth the scene of his principal triumphs. In compliment to his action drama ‘Tristan and Isolde,’ I was christened ‘Isolde, quite an unusual namé among English people, but I am quite English, as is my mother also There are four of us in the family, two boys and two girls, and we were all started with the fiddle, although I am the only one who has kept it up. English boys as a rule look upon that sort of thing as something unmanly, and beneath them, and they put it away from them as soon as they possibly can do so. Music is not hereditary except in rare cases." Isolde Menges, violinist, will be heard from 2YA on Monday, July 6. Kenney Dynasty HORACE KENNEY, of "Music Hall Trial Turn" fame, comes of a thoroughly theatrical stock. His grandfather, Charles Lamb Kenney (godson of the great Charles Lamb) was dramatic critic on "The Times," wrote for the theatre, helped to introduce opera bouffe to Covent Garden, and wrote that well-known song, "The Vagabond" for Charles Santley. The grandfather's brother, James Kenney, of Dublin, was a representative writer of his day; his aunt, Rosa Kenney, was a very well- . known Shakespearian actress of her time, and played Juliet to Compton’s Romeo at Drury Lane. Horace Kenney’s father, Charles Kenney, was an actor of whom Irving said that one might put him into any part and he would give a show of it. Horace Kenney, comedian, will be heard from 4YA on Monday, July 6, ‘

In Direct Line FfLORENCE AUSTRAL’S real name is Florence Wilson, although she was formerly known in Australia as Florence Fawaz, which is the name of her stepfather and of Syrian extraction. She was born in Melbourne, and finding herself gifted , with a voice which both she and her friends thought worth training, she _started studying singing in 1914. At the end of that year she won a Board -_ Scholarship which entitled her to three _ years’ tuition at the Melbourne Conseivatoire of Music-the University. There she studied under Madame BHlise Weidermann. a splendid teacher, who in her day, many years earlier, had been a great and renowned Wagnerian Ssinger. It was under her experienced tuition that Austral studied Wagnerian opera, which has been so valuable to the prima donna ever Since. Austral’s teacher created several of the roles in the operas in Wagner’s own lifetime, one of these being that of Dva in Meistersingers. Thereby Florence Austral is in the direct line of Wagnerian exponents, and how worthily she maintains the tradition the world well knows. On Sunday, July 5, the soprano will be on 2YA’s studio pragramme. ‘ Farewell Flonzaley THE Flonzaley Quartet concluded its 26 years of public service. by playing at a farewell concert iny New York City on March 17, 1929. The Town Hall was packed from floor to floor with an immense audience, comprising many distinguished musicians and music-lovers; and the concert was a memorable and impresSive finish to a career of selfless devotion to the cause of music. Four artists devoted themselves to no other kind of performance save as a quartet. The record is unique in the annals of the arf. At the conclusion of the concert a wonderful reception was accorded the. quartet, writes ©, A. Bell, a reception not altogether free from a touch of solemnity engendered by the audience realising that they were witnessing the final appearance of a body of players whose singleness of purpose and long devotion to chamber music had given to + gov Ee "e

the world an indestructible memory and tradition of greatness that time would never efface. The quartet’s gramophone records are happily preServed to us. Musical Guardsman ARTHUR BLISS,. English modernist composer and conductor,

figures in 2YA’s programme on Sunday, July 5. He used to be in the Grenadier Guards, being wounded in 1916 on the Somme, and, at Cambrai in 1918, he was gassed. His name was mentioned in despatches. Bven during this period, music penetrated the barriers and entanglements of war. While he was on active service a string quartet and a {aus

piano quartet, early works, wel'e performed, and a prize was awarded to one of them at the War Wmergency Concerts. Ag if to show that for him a new world had dawned, he destroyed the plates and unsold copies of these works on his return to civilian life Bliss looks like the guard officer he once was, but his music is that of riotous modernism of the rebel and outlaw. :