by ANTONI SALA
ONE authority lays it down fearlessly that' Porpora was tho greatest singing-master that ever lived. No singers, before or since, have sung like his pupils.' All that we know now of his method-apart from the singing exercises he left-is the highly improbable story of how he trained the famous Caffarelli, keeping him for five years to one page of vocal gymnastics and then bidding him go, with the valediction ' You are the greatest singer In Europe.' He certainly enjoyed a great renown as a teacher, and held many important posts in the world of music, not only in his native Italy, but throughout Europe. A contemporary of Handel's, he spent two or three years of his erratic career in London, directing an operatic enterprise in opposition to Handel's, in which he had the backing of a good part of influential London. None of his own operas, however, have survived, although he is supposed to have composed no fewer than thirty-three, as well as numerous oratorios, masses, and smaller vocal and instrumental pieces. It is in some of these last that his best qualities are displayed, and this melodious Sonata is a good example of his style.
ONE of the foremost violinists of France in the first part of the eighteenth century, who had a big influence on his own and following generations by grafting something of Italian grace and dignity on the French manner, Jean Baptiste Senaille was a real Parisian. His father was one of the famous ' twenty-four violins of the King,' and after winning successes and distinction in Italy, where he outshone the native artists on their own ground, he settled in his native city as a member of Louis XV's band.
Ho loft a great volume of music for his own instrument, much of which is still deservedly cherished.
(For 5.45 to 8.45 Programmes see opposite page)

S onata Largo ; Allegro; Adagio ; Allegro - Porpora
Elegie - Fauré
Allegretto - Boccherini, arr. Kreisler
Lament of Fanaid Grove - Old Tune, arr. Herbert Hughes
Allegro Spiritoso - G. B. Senaillé