Conductor, STANFORD ROBINSON
At the Pianoforte, BERKELEY MASON
STUART ROBERTSON (Baritone)
Of the composers represented in this programme Sir Edward Elgar and Dvorak need no introduction to listeners, while Sir Charles Stanford is familiar to most. Stanford was in his day an outstanding personality in British music, both as composer and as teacher. The majority of modern British composers above a certain age were pupils of his at the Royal College of Music, and any one of them will subscribe to the now accepted opinion that Stanford was one of the greatest teachers of his age. And his influence extends to the second generation of pupils: it is scarcely too much to say that British music of today has its roots in the teaching of Stanford.
Of the others mentioned, E.J. Moeran, once a pupil of Vaughan Williams, is interested like him in folk-music; Percy Grainger, an Australian, and a solo pianist, is easily recognised as the composer of Shepherd's Hey and Molly on the Shore, and as the most expert juggler with a folk tune now before the public; Dr. C.B. Rootham is the distinguished organist and Musical Director of St. John's College, Cambridge; Sir Hugh Roberton, who only a few days ago was broadcasting with his Choir, is conductor of the famous Glasgow Orpheus Choir; Hubert Foss, one of several talented brothers, is, as head of the music branch of the Oxford University Press, so active in the music interests of the day that his name appears in the programme pages as a composer only occasionally; while Cyril Jenkins has been an organist, choral conductor, and brass band adjudicator.