(Section C)
(Led by F. WEIST HILL )
Conducted by PERCY PITT
NORA GRUHN (Soprano)
ÉTIENNE HENRI MÉHUL , at the age of sixteen, was present at the first performance of Iphigenia in Tauris in 1779. He was passionately moved by the music, told Gluck so, and received from that grout man both advico and instruction. On that base Mehul subsequently built a reputation as an opera composer of very great distinction. It is difficult to understand why we hear so little of Mehul today, but it may be that digging operations have not yet reached the place where Mehul's treasures lie buried a little beneath the surface. Mehul has been called the Mozart of France ; what he learnt from Gluck ho applied to the regeneration of opéra-comique, and he is known to have written twenty-four operas in about seventeen years, all of them highly successful. But this was only part of all he composed. His most important opera, perhaps, was Joseph; the one work that has been revived, at least so far as England ia concerned. Sir Thomas Beecham staged it some years ago.
GIUSEPPI MARTUCCI , a well-known Italian pianist in the latter half of the last century, came to England on a European tour in 1875. He was well received, and stayed here some months, long enough, at any rate. to get to know something of English music, for later on, when he took to orchestral conducting, he made a habit of including several English works in his programmes, those of Parry and Stanford amongst others. The compliment has occasionally been returned. Ho had a symphony performed at the Royal College, and a trio at St. James's Hall, but, considering that his compositions aro very numerous, it can scarcely be maintained that the return is entirely adequate.