Eluned Leyshon (Violin) and Nina Jones (Pianoforte) First Movement,

Ernst Von Dohnanyi, whose acquaintance listeners have had several opportunities of making, both as pianist and as composer, is not one of the ultra-moderns who bid defiance to all the older rules and traditions. Fresh and original though his music is, it is all melodious and easy to enjoy, and the Sonata for violin and pianoforte is a good example of his style.
Although only the first and last movements are to be played in this programme, the Sonata is intended to be played right through without a break, the three movements following on one another continuously. The first is bold and impassioned, with a long melody which the violin plays at the outset. There are other fragmentary tunes, but it is this big one which really dominates the movement.
The second, which is being omitted this evening, is a theme with a set of free variations following on it. The theme itself is a simple one, in swift tempo, but with something of tenderness in its strain; the first variation is whimsical and capricious, the next broad and solemn, the third agitated and hurrying, the last returning to the quiet tenderness of the opening.
The third movement is full of vivacity and high spirits. A few bars of prelude introduce the strenuous theme on which most of it is founded. There is a calm section in the middle, and then the brisk speed of the beginning returns. The movement is rounded off with a reminder of the broad theme with which the first opened.

Dinah Evans (Soprano) and Anita Vaughan (Contralto)

The music of the modern Russian school which began with Glinka is in a very real sense national, and presents something of the Russian character in many vivid ways. But, preoccupied as they were with their own idiom and their own traditions, several members of the Russian school turned more than once to other countries for inspiration; Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Spanish Capriccio' and Tchaikovsky's 'Italian Capriccio' come to mind at once in such a connection.
This Spanish Serenade of Glazounov's is a rather slight early work, and the Spanish character is suggested chiefly by the rhythmic accompaniment, somewhat in the manner of a guitar. The melody is of that big and broad order which is eminently well suited to the violoncello.