by HILDA BOR
THIS VARIED PROGRAMME takes us pretty completely through the period of romantic composition for pianoforte, which, nursed in the cradle of Chopin, strengthened by the technical genius of Liszt, has been renewed in the fire of the modern school of Spanish composers, of which Granados and Falla are two of the most important representatives.
A well-constructed recital programme is usually historical in this sense ; it is built like a house from foundations upwards. The only break in the historical sequence of this programme is at the beginning ; Sterndale Bennett was a year or two later than Chopin, while Defesch was a contemporary of Handel. Actually, he was a violinist and led the orchestra in the first performance of Handel's Occasional Oratorio in 1736. Most of his published work was for stringed instruments.