THE LYRA QUARTET:
Gordon Walker (flute) ; Jean Pougnet (violin); Anthony Collins (viola) ;
John Cockerill (harp)
SIR HAMILTON HARTY has not written a great deal of chamber music, and most of what he has written dates from early in the century. Flute and harp is always a happy combination, for the colours of both instruments blend admirably.
THIS SERENADE is Opus 25 in the list of Beethoven's compositions, and was published in 1802, that is in Beethoven's early Vienna days. A year later it was revised by the composer and issued as a work tor pianoforte and flute or violin. The reason for this is not very clear, but no doubt it was to fulfil a commission. It is light-hearted in character, and was written to fulfil the same purpose as the Serenades of Mozart and the eighteenth century-merely to give entertainment.
THE TITLE of this piece of music is unusual, but it has point in view of the scheme which the composer has almost made his own. One might say that he uses the methods of Trollope in his novels, as applied to music. In all his works of this nature, melodies and subjects are cropping up as though related to the main idea of the whole group, just as with Antony Trollope the same characters appear and reappear as units in a comprehensive chronicle. It is a bold and useful method, and to refer to it merely as a leit-motif is not to give it entire credit.
(First Performance)
THIS is the first performance of a Quartet by a composer who, hitherto, has not appeared often in broadcast programmes. He is a Professor at the Royal Academy of Music.