PERCY WmTEHEAD (Baritone)
THE WIRELESS MILITARY BAND, conducted by B. WALTON O'DONNELL
GLAZOUNOV (born in 1865) is probably the most distinguished living Russian composer who does not work on very advanced' modernist ' lines.
He is a master of orchestral effect, and in his ballets and other light pieces he has produced music that follows very agreeably, yet with distinct individuality of its own, in the Tchaikovsky tradition.
The Seasons, a Suite of orchestral pieces (now to be heard in an arrangement for Military Band), was originally written for a Ballet. There are four pieces in the complete Ballet Suite. Of these we are to hear three-(I) Barcarolle and Variations ; (2) Waltz of the Poppies and Corn-flowers ; (3) Bacchanal.
DELIBES began to write for the stage at the age of twenty-one, and showed that he had a capital ' sense of the theatre.' Ho brought out some short Comic Operas at the Lyric Theatre of Paris, and wrote a number of Operettas for other theatres. After periods ns accompanist and second Chorus Master at the Opera, he was commissioned to collaborate in a Ballet with the Polish composer Minkus, and did it so weli that he was asked to compose one himself. This was Coppelia, which came out in May, 1870. Its run was tragically interrupted by the outbreak, a few weeks later, of the Franco-Prussian War.
Many listeners will recall the glories of Adeline Genee 's dancing, when Coppelia was running at the Empire in London; and others will find that the tunes have, in some way or other, already become familiar.
PARRY'S is a capitally pointed setting of one of the best of humorous songs. The Laird o' Cockpen's, wooing seemed fruitless, but Mistress Jean thought better of her refusal of the rich suitor, declaring ' for ane I get bettor, it's waur I'll get ten-I was daft to refuse the Laird o' Cockpen.' So all ended happily, and ' she sits in the ha' like a well-tappit hen.'
THE Pole Wieniawski must have been one of the .youngest pupils ever accepted at the Paris Conservatoire, for he was attending classes there at the age of eight.
For a time, after he had made his name, he lived at St. Petersburg as Solo Violinist to the Emperor of Russia, but he liked wandering best of all, and travelled all over
Europe and America, playing the Violin and seeing the world. He is universally known for his small compositions, such as this Song in the style of one of the airs of his native Poland.