conducts The BBC Television Orchestra
Leader, Boris Pecker
in a programme of his own compositions.
"Saxo-Rhapsody"
(Solo saxophone, Ken Gray)
Overture, "The Merrymakers"
"I pitch my lonely caravan"
March, "Knightsbridge" (London Suite)

Eric Coates's "Saxo-Rhapsody" was first performed at the Folkestone Musical Festival in September, 1936, and was broadcast on January 16 last, the soloist on both occasions being Sigurd Rascher, for whom the piece was written. To serious concert artists like Rascher who have for long lamented the scantiness of the saxophone repertoire, the "Saxo-Rhapsody" is an ideal composition; it does much to dispel the erroneous idea that the saxophone is solely a jazz instrument. For all this, however, Coates has said of it: "Secretly feeling that where there is a saxophone syncopation is never far away, I surreptitiously slipped in a few bars of syncopated rhythm, hoping that the classically-minded Sigurd would not mind".
The soloist this afternoon, Ken Gray, is a member of the BBC Television Orchestra.