(Concert continued)
Giacinto Scelsi is an Italian composer, born in 1905, whose father was a pioneer in the field of aviation. He studied in Rome, where he received advice and encouragement from Respighi and Casclla, though he was never actually a pupil of those masters. A much-travelled man (he has visited the Far East and Africa besides most European countries), he won his first success with a- work called Rotadive, for three pianos, wind, and percussion, produced in Paris under Monteux in 1931. Six years later, while in Vienna, he came under the influence of the school of Schonberg. His most important work is La Naissance du Verbe for choir and orchestra; when performed in Paris last year this was hailed as an outstanding achievement. His String Quartet, to be played tonight, was written in Switzerland in 1944. Harold Rutland