(Section D)
Led by LAURANCE TURNER
Conducted by JOSEPH LEWIS
DAVID WISE (violin)
Most of the music of Balfour Gardiner known to listeners was composed prior to the War, but a number of his works remain in the repertory and increase in popularity. This overture, remodelled from a comparatively early work, was performed for the first time in May, 1911, at Queen's Hal!, and has since become a familiar item in concerts of British music. Balfour Gardiner studied partly in Frankfort, and was there the colleague of Norman O'Neill. Roger Quitter,
Cyril Scott and Percy Grainger. He has always been very active in the interests of British music, and an older generation will remember with gratitude the important series of orchestral concerts devoted to the compositions of British musicians which he gave some twenty years ago. Sir Alexander Mackenzie, by reason of his long association with the Royal Academy of Music-he was its Principal for thirty-six years, retiring in 1924-exercised a very powerful influence, not only on the generation now in its maturity, but on a younger school of composers and executives actively practising today. Sir Alexander's crowded life has witnessed the progress of British music from the days when the influence of Mendelssohn was all-pervading, to the present day when British composers take their rightful place in the esteem of the world. To this status Mackenzie has contributed invaluably.