Arranged by The People's Concert Society
In co-operation with the B.B.C.
The Kingsley Quartet and Olive Bloom (Pianoforte)

For a Doctor of Medicine and Professor of Chemistry to take up composition and excel in it is surely a curious thing.
Dr. Alexander Borodin, whose Second String Quartet we are now to hear, was one of the group of Russians, all amateurs, who set out in the early part of the nineteenth century to make a national art music for their country, by using in their works native old songs and the rhythms to which the country folk loved to dance.
Borodin's Second String Quartet is not highly, typical Russian music ; the composer had heard what Schumann could do in chamber music, and had picked up a good deal from him. Yet there are some clearly marked and enjoyable Russian traits in the four Movements of the Quartet.

The FIRST MOVEMENT, for instance, changes its speed several times, rather as the Russian peasant changes rapidly from one mood to another.

The SECOND MOVEMENT is an impulsive Scherzo, with a good deal of that. reiteration of little bits of tune in which the Russian mind delights.

SCHUMANN was one of the pioneers of music journalism.
He was also one of the great enthusiasts for Chopin's music. When he was reviewing Chopin's Second Scherzo, he said: 'It is so overflowing with tenderness, boldness, love and contempt, that it may be compared, not inappropriately, to a Byron poem. Such a one does not please everyone, to be sure.' However, in spite of Schumann's doubt, it has become one of Chopin's most popular works.

If there is any jesting about this Scherzo (as the word originally indicated) it seems to be very grim, or at least very noble, jesting.
'CELLO SOLO (to be announced)

THIS, one of the best of Dvorak's Chamber works, has all his native tunefulness and resource, and its sudden flashes of warmth, beauty and fire make it exceedingly attractive.