MABEL CORRAN (Contralto)
VICTOR OLOF (Violin)
MARSDEN COLLIERY BAND SVENDSEN was the son of a military bandmaster, and himself held such a post while only in his teens. He had some experience, too, as an orchestral musician, and when only twenty-one set out on a tour of Sweden and northern Germany. No great good luck attended him, until, two years later, he obtained a grant from Charles XV to enable him to carry on his studies of the violin. Again misfortune overtook him and paralysis of one of his hands brought his career as a violinist to an end. Turning his energies to composition, he produced some quite interesting chamber music and a symphony, travelling in Denmark, Scotland and Norway, introducing his own works. For two years, 1868 until the war of 1870, he was in Paris, and thereafter his life was a succession of journeys, in the course of which he held posts as conductor in many centres of music. He enjoyed the friendship of the- greatest men in the world of music, and had opportunities of hearing many of his own works performed under the best possible conditions. His music, though reminding one pretty often of Grieg's, does not concern itself so constantly with Norway, partly, no doubt, because of his own wide experience of many different lands. But it has the same finely melodious qualities and this piece is admirably laid out for the violin, as not even pieces composed by violinists always are.
(Soloist, Master W. BLACKETT)