By the HASTINGS MUNICIPAL ORCHESTRA
Conducted by BASIL CAMERON
Relayed from White Rock Pavilion, Hastings
ORCHESTRAL music in quite a number of the English holiday resorts is steadily assuming a greater importance. Not only are the performances improving out of all recognition, but the programmes show a rapidly rising standard of quality, and big works are constantly given, as well as new music which has not yet had a chance of becoming popular, with a regularity which augurs well for English music as a whole. This state of matters is very largely due to the enthusiasm and ability of the conductors, among whom Basil Cameron is one of the most enterprising. And whenever opportunity offers, he makes it clear to the much wider audience which broadcasting affords, that he has a real command of his job, and is one of those under whoso guidance an orchestra gives of its very best. With every appearance in London he adds to his already enviable reputation.
COLERIDGE-TAYLOR'S trilogy The Song of Hiawatha comes to an end on a note of sadness which has yet something of bright hope mingled with it. The third part is called 'Hiawatha's Departure,' and before he goes, he tells his people that one day the Paleface will take their country from them. The prophecy is first made by Eigoo. Listeners will remember that he is the great boaster; at the Wedding Feast, the first part of the story, he entertains the guests by 'his immeasurable falsehoods.' Now, when he tells his people that in his wanderings he has seen a great canoe with a hundred warriors, all with white faces, they listen an though it were only one more of his wild imaginings, and laugh at his story. But Hiawatha warns them not to scoff. He knows that all Eigoo tells them is true; he himself has seen it in a vision.
MASSENET, more than one of whose operas have already been broadcast, was particularly successful in catching and embodying in his music something of the character of the scenes which inspired it. He was one of the illustrious French musicians who won the Prix de Rome, the highest award which the Paris Conservatoire gives its students, and one which entails a period of study in Italy. It was no doubt some recollection of his stay there which gave him the idea for this bright and sparkling Suite. The names of its four movements can very well speak for themselves, but as listeners can hear, the music does indeed bring with it something of the gay and sunny South.
ENTHUSIAST though ho is for the folk music of the Mother Country, Percy Grainger is anything but narrow-minded in his choice of subjects. He has often shown how wide his interests are and how readily he can adapt his methods to the idiom and tradition of other lands. This orchestral piece, based on Danish folk tunes, should have as much chance of becoming popular as his settings oi English folk music have already proved themselves to be.
Denmark is a country of whose native music we know but little in Britain, rich though it is in folk tunes of a simple and melodious order.

Overture, ' Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna ' - Suppé
Four Pieces for Strings from the Suite in D Gavotto; Bourree ; Air ; Gigue - Bach
GEORGE BAKER (Baritone) Scena, ' Hiawatha's Vision' (' Hiawatha's Departure - Coleridge-Taylor
ORCHESTRA Suite, ' Neapolitan Scenes' The Dance; the Procession ; the Extemporizer ; the Fete - Massenet
Andante cantabile (String Quartet in D) - Tchaikovsky
Jutish Medley (based on Danish Folk Songs) - Percy Grainger
GEORGE BAKER Song, ' The Devout Lover' - Maud Valerie While
ORCHESTRA Praeludium - Järnefelt
Tone Poem, ' Finlandia ' - Sibelius