W. H. SQUIRE (Violoncello) THE WlRELESS ORCHESTRA
Conducted by JOHN ANSELL
ALTHOUGH a Bohemian by birth, Edward Napravnik spent the greater part of his life in Russia and is honourably remembered for his splendid work as conductor of the Opera at St. Petersburg. During his thirty-five years' service there, he conducted over 3,000 operas, of which no fewer than sixty-two were first productions of new works. Among these' were many operas by Russian composers, so that Russian music owes him a very real debt of gratitude. With his mastery of the conductor's difficult art, he combined a real gift for organizing, and, though he insisted on the strictest discipline, it was all done with so pleasant a manner that he was not merely respected everywhere, but held in warm affection. It was largely due to him that the standard of performance rose to a very high pitch and that the standing of the singers and players was very much improved. It is often the case when a composer is occupied day in and day out in interpreting the work of other people, that his own is tinged with reminiscences of better-known music ; Napravnik's, nevertheless, shows a real mastery of the orchestral resources, and it has a charm and attractiveness of its own, so that many of his operas enjoyed real success in his own day. He died in 1915 at the good old age of seventy-six.
LISTENERS know Mr. W. H. Squire as a brilliant violoncellist, whose playing is distinguished by a very finished technique and a specially big and broad tone ; they arc familiar, too, with many of 'his fresh and breezy songs and with quite a number of the melodious pieces he has given to his own instrument.
His musical gifts showed themselves at a very early age, and he was only twelve when he won a scholarship for the violoncello at the Royal College of Music. He made his firs.t important appearance at the old St. James's Hall at the ago of twenty, and has ever since taken a distinguished place in British music.
Besides the smaller pieces and songs which have won so wide a popularity, he has written a Concerto for violoncello and two Operettas. He has, moreover, enriched the violoncellist's repertoire with a big number of arrangements of older music, wisely chosen, and laid out for the instrument by one who is not only a master of all its resources, but a well-equipped musician also. This splendidly melodious concerto by the great Handel may very likely be new to most listeners ; there must be quite a large number of Handel's instrumental pieces which are still hidden away on the shelves of libraries, and it is still possible to unearth music stamped with all his fine gifts which has been almost wholly neglected since his own time. It is one of the remarkable pieces of musical history that for generations he was known to us in this country by only one work, though he was, in fact, one of the most industrious and prolific of composers all his life.