The Individual Listener In Radio

Radio Record, Volume X, Issue 5, 14 August 1936, Page 9

The Individual Listener In Radio

Importance Of The Correct Attitude Toward BroadcastingPersonalities In The London Broadcasting World-Je essie Matthews Asked For Favourite Song

(By Air Mail From Our Own ~ Correspondent.) London, July 15. LD : a recent appeal to listeners the B.B.C. says that it is’ desirable to: emphasise once more the essential part. played in broadcasting by the individual listener. From time to time it is pointed out that broadcast programmes could be made better if there were ‘fewer of them. ‘This is true in the abstract, but it represents an ideal which is unrealisable if broadcasting is to serve a large, modern community. Broadcasting must. and will. struggle continually to offer to its listeners the great works of art performed by -the great artists of the day, but it must serve listeners and groups of listeners of different tastes, different social backgrounds and domestic habits, listeners who can only listen attentively at-certain times or on certain days. Its programmes,

then, are bound to be catholic and numerous and spread bver many hours of every day, and the conception of broadcasting as an eclectic activity is one which can only find support among leisured people, for whom, incidentally, broadcasting is not the necessity it has become for the great majority. Evergreen JHSSIn MATTHEWS made a welcome reappearance to the microphone last week. It doesn’t matter how many new pictures Jessie makes

or how many. new songs she sings, London always calls her out to sing "Over My Shoulder" from "Evergreen." ; Oratorio QE of the most amuzing oratorios eyer penned was broadcast last month. Based on an epic legend of North Africa, "Wagadu Destroyed" is a two-hour performance. Muriel Brunskill sang beautifully. But the masterpiece was Albert Coates conducting a quintet of saxophones. Such oratorio

work you’ve never heard. .The composer is Vladimir Vogel, the son of a German father and Russian mother, born at Moscow in 1896. Father Called In -) OHN MILLS (of the famous Mills Brothers) died in April. It’s a sad break for the brothers, but then, their father, Mills, sen., has helped them out by joining the quartet. They come to London in August for ‘music-hall and radio work. The boys are joined by a guitar player, Billy Costello, whose yoice is known to humanity as that of "Pop-Xye" in the film cartoons. Hambourg’s Treasures AT Mark Hambourg’s elaborate Regent’s Park home the other afternoon I saw three priceless rarities. Mark is terribly proud of possession of two original and unpublished manuscripts (Etudes) by Chopin. These frail parchments with their feathery notes are part of a collection which also includes an original and unpublished manuscript by Liszt. It is ealled "Consolation in F." Old Files GEARCHING through old files at the British Museum, Mark Strong discovered three Victorian dances which probably delighted our great-grand-mothers at their coming-out parties in

the "fifties." The dances were found in "Jullien’s Journal,’ ‘published in London between 1844 and 1857 by Jul-lien-that amazing personality who performed mammoth quadrilles, ‘had flunkeys-to bear to him a special baton on a crimson cushion whenever he was to conduct Beethoven, and did much to popularise the classics in London. He was nicknamed "The Mons," and has one undeniable claim to fame;.he was caricatured in the pages of "Punch" more often than any other musician before or since. With Edna Hatzfeld at the other piano, Mark Strong will play the dances in-a recital of music for two pianofortes on July 31. True to period, their titles are: Mazurka ("Pas deg fleurs"); Valse ("Le billet duox’’), and Polonaise. Some Fee! HEN the B.B.C, or commercial stations broadcast a recorded item by

Dawson, the performing, copyright and recording fees are paid, but the artist gets nothing. When the B.B.C. or com: mercial] stations broadcast an item by Dawson from the studio the perform: ing and copyright fees are paid as usual, and the artist is paid a fee, which in Dawson’s case is eight guineas per song. One song, mind you, and on one recent night I listened to his 35-minute recital on the B.B.O. Work it out yourself! "