WHEN one recalls the first broadcast of this oratorio programme from the Birmingham studio on the eve of Armistice Day, 1929, the aptness of its title is revealed. The programme itself is fully explained by Joseph Lewis , who compiled it, and whose conception it was, on page 974 of this issue.
There is nothing unusual in presenting in one programme a number of varied excerpts from the oratorios of different composers. Where, however, this careful compilation is different is in the linking up of several excerpts to form a cohesive whole strictly relevant in mood and sequence to a central idea-in this case, the idea of distress finding comfort in the loving compassion of God. Nearly all the excerpts are well-known, not only to the thousands who have shared in the performance of them, but to the tens of thousands for whom listening to them is a major part of their musical education. Oratorio is still the staple fare wherever, in the British Isles, there is a choir, and though Mr. Lewis's selection discovers nothing new, nothing even strange, old affection will be alert to greet a compilation that presents the familiar in a new grouping of sympathy and purpose.