Relayed from the Kingsway Hall
Arranged by Gatty Sellars
The Band of H.M. Royal Horse Guards (The Blues)
(By permission of Lieut.-Col. Lord A. R. Innes-Ker)
Director of Music, Lieut. W. J. Dunn

Touring the war between Turkey and Serbia in 1876, the great Russian pianist, Nicholas Rubinstein, brother of the still more famous Anton Rubinstein, organized a charity concert for the relief of the wounded, and for the occasion Tchaikovsky, who was enthusiastic for the Slavonic cause, wrote this Slavonic March, which, in fact, he sometimes called a 'Russo-Serbian' March.
The opening of the March is very sombre; in fact, it begins 'in the manner of a funeral march.' Later, the Russian National Hymn is heard, and the whole ends brilliantly and joyously.