KATE WINTER (Soprano)
THE WIRELESS MALE VOICE CHOIR
Chorus Master, STANFORD ROBINSON
THE WIRELESS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Leader, S. KNEALE KELLEY
Conducted by PERCY PITT
ONE B.B.C. listener, complaining of the quality of the programmes, gave it as his considered opinion that all music was necessarily bad music which had 'Op.' after it. Whether or not he knew what is meant by the abbreviation, the B.B.C. did not discover; for him it merely stood as a symbol of what he did not like.
Comparatively, little of Schubert's music appears on programmes with that hall-mark of iniquity - possibly one factor in the universal affection in which we hold him; Much of his music appeared only after his death, his brother Ferdinand charging himself with the editing and issuing of the great store of manuscripts which Franz left. So apparently endless was this stream of posthumous music that the world began to think its leg was being pulled. In 1839 The Musical World expressed its amazement thus:
'A deep shade of suspicion is beginning to be cast over the authenticity of posthumous compositions. All Paris has been in a state of amazement at the posthumous diligence of the song writer, F. Schubert, who, while one would think that his ashes repose in peace in Vienna, is still making eternal new songs.'
The doubt reflects little credit on the judgment of that day; to us it seems as though it should have been an easy thing to recognize the music of Schubert as his own. There never has been any music quite like his. No other composer has over said quite the same things, nor in the same way.
ORCHESTRA
Overture, ' Fierrabras '
9.20 KATE WINTER and Orchestra
The Shepherd on the Rock
Clarinet Obbligato, FREDERICK THURSTON IN this beautiful little song, the 'Shepherd tells of his loneliness while he looks down on the valley below, and of how joy has fled from him. In the last verse a note of gladness appears with the thought of the coming of Spring.
9.30 ORCHESTRA
Fantasy in F Minor, Op. 103
THIS appeared first as one of two pianoforte duets, the other being the Grand Rondo, Op. 107. They were published in 1829, the year after Schubert's death, along with many of the songs. The orchestration is the work of Felix Mottl , who has been very successful in capturing Schubert's own manner ; as we are to hear it, it might very well have come from Schubert's own hands.
9.45 KATE Winter
Secrets Whither
The Inner Light (Translated by A. H. Fox Strangways)
Rose among the Heather
9.58 ORCHESTRA
' Unfinished ' Symphony in B Minor German Dances