THE WIRELESS MILITARY BAND, conducted by B. WALTON O'DONNELL
ETHEL FENTON (Contralto)
THE Suite, Scheherazade, based on stories from the Arabian Nights, is best known through the dancing and miming to its music by the Russian Ballet-but the plot of the Ballet does considerable violence to the original ' programme ' of the composer.
The Suite includes four sections, said to illustrate episodes from the stories with which the Sultana, Scheherazade, appeased her lord the Sultan, and finally won him from his murderous ways. It does not purport to follow any of the tales closely.
The Sultana is represented by a recurring theme, like an improvization.
In the last portion of the work, which we are to hear, the Sultana first tells of gorgeous festivities at Baghdad. Then she turns back to Sinbad, of whom she had earlier discoursed, and relates how his ship was wrecked upon an island. The storm is well suggested in the music.
In the end, the music tells us that the Sultan is appeased, and that the last word, as ever, is the woman's.