mHIS programme has a personal Interest, consisting, as it does, of the most important works as yet produced by two young composers who are close and life-long friends.
I
' Ode to Death'
For Tenor Solo, Chorus and Orchestra
Poem by WALT WHITMAN Music by JAMES CHING , JOHN ADAMS (Tenor)
JAMES CHING, the composer of this ' Odo to
Death,' which is now being performed for the first time, is happily known to listeners as a solo pianist, and one or two smaller pieces of his have already been broadcast. He tells us that not only has Walt Whitman 's poetry always claimed his interest, but that these words, beginning ' Come lovely and soothing death ' have a specially profound significance for him; he was himself on the point of death shortly before composing the work.
II
'A Skye Symphony'
By STANLEY WILSON
Andante con moto-Allegretto-allegro vivace.
Andante sostenuto ; Allegro giacoso ; Moderato animato.
THE composer of this Symphony was only fifteen when he won an open Scholarship for Composition at the Royal College of Music, where he studied with the late Sir Charles Stan ford. He is now Music Master at Ipswich School, and his published works include a string quartet, a Ballet Suite, an Evening Service, part songs, songs, and pianoforte pieces.
The ' Skye Symphony' was composed in the autumn of 1927 and gained a Carnegie Award in the following year. The composer explains that it is rhapsodical in character but has yet classic principles. There is one principal motive which pervades the whole work; heard in different ways and moods its phrases have a special signi. ficance. It is the impression of the Island in general that it seeks to express rather than any definite details.
THE BIRMINGHAM STUDIO CHORUS and AUGMENTED ORCHESTRA
Leader, FRANK CANTELL
Conducted by JOSEPH LEWIS