England's Cockney Wagner

Radio Record, 1 April 1938, Page 21

England's Cockney Wagner

MUSICIAN WHO FOUGHT HARD UNTIL HE "ARRIVED"

ANY fairly well-informed musicians still associate the name of Josef Holbrooke with some excellent variations on that popular tune of the mnursery-‘‘Three Blind Mice"-and nothing more. Although one would naturally expect a clever elaboration of the tune from so marvellously brilliant a pianist it is a pitiful commentary on our knowledge of modern music that so absurd an association of ideas should be the sole clue to the identity of this arresting figure. Hannan Swaffer, writing an appreciation of Josef Holbrooke, referred to the composer as the "Cockney Wagner," a by no means inapt title. Josef Holbrooke began his career as pianist at Collins’s Music Hall, Islington, deputising for his father, who was also a musician, as was his father before him. Josef’s father is said to have composed the music of "The Blind Boy," celebrated by Chirgwin, the "White-eyed Kaffir." The son and grandson of musicians, Josef Holbrooke was regarded in the early stages of his career by older colleagues as quite definitely the "bad boy" of English music. He had to fight hard for anything like adequate recognition of his original gifts. That he has

now won something like an assured position is largely the outcome of his unyielding faith in his own work. Among those who helped him with encouragement ang understanding waa that wealthy, but public-spirited peer, Lord Howard de Walden. Writing under the nom-de-plume of "T, BE. Bilis," Lord de Walden wrote a great work, "The Cauldron of Anwyn,"’ which is a kind of saga of Welsh mythology based upon the doings of folk of the period of King Arthur. Holbrooke was anxious to compose an operatic trilogy based on these stories, and the project gradually took shape and was carried to successful completion, The subject is one in which Holbrooke’s romantic temperament found full scope, and the music is vivid and forceful in keeping with the tragie, passionate story. The operas comprising the trilogy are "The Children of Don" (produced in 1912 and financed by the poet-peer to the tune of £32,000), "Dylan," which appeared a year later, and "Bronwen," given its premiere by the Carl Rosa Opera Company at Huddersfield in 1929. The "Dylan" Prelude is from the second of these operas and 2YA listeners will have an opportunity of hearing it played by a symphony orchestra under Clarence Raybould, on Sunday, April 3.