Relayed from THE PAVILION, BOURNEMOUTH
S.B. from Bournemouth
BERNARD Ross (Baritone)
THE BOURNEMOUTH MUNICIPAL ORCHESTRA
Conducted by Sir DAN GODFREY
.(Solo Violins,
BERTRAM LEWIS and BYRON BROOKE )
BERLIOZ had a very poor opinion of his fellow. countryman Herold, the composer of Zampa. Ho accused him of having no style of his own, combining in his music something borrowed from France, Germany, and Italy, to produce what Berlioz called ' merely Parisian music.' And of this opera he said, ' the banging of the big drum at the end is so continuous and furious that one is tempted to take to one's heels.' The world at large does not share that uncomplimentary verdict, and the Overture, with its vigour and energy, has always been popular, lendiug itself to performance in many different forms.
THIS work of Mendelssohn's, more than any other-presents him to us as a veritable ' Peter Pan ' of music, who definitely refused to grow up. ] had its birth in the garden of the house in Berlin to which the family had just moved in Mendels sohn's seventeenth year. the same garden ir which so much fine music was afterwards finely played. And though the work of a mere boy. it is in every way which matters masterly music. But it is its grace and charm, its clear freshness of open spaces, with something of the wann glamour of summer nights, the mischief of Puck, and the boisterous mirth of the Clowns' Dance, which the listener recognizes, rather than the skill with which the work is built.
LEONCAVALLO'S one-act Opera is a play within a play, and there is an audience on the stage besides the one 'in front.' Instead of the customary Overture, there is a pro loguo sung by the Clown of the Strolling Players. In his clown's costume, with white cap and painted face, he thrusts the curtains apart and comes before the footlights to explain to theaudience that, for once in a way, the story they are about to follow on the stage is no invented one, but a real tragedy which the composer himself once witnessed. Thp Clown tells his hearers not to think of the players as merely puppets. ' Ours are human hearts beating with passion ; we are but men like you,' he sings, closing his exhortation with the words, ' Ring up the curtain.' It is so effective a piece of vocal music that its universal popularity with baritone singers is easy to understand.

March, ' The Crown of Chivalry' - Fletcher
Overture, 'Zampa' - Hérold
Serenata - Toselli
Selection, ' A Midsummer Night's Dream ' - Mendelssohn
BERNARD Ross Aria, Prologue, ' I Pagliacci ' - Leoncavallo
ORCHESTRA Gavotte, 'Mignon ' - Ambroise Thomas
Praeludium - Järnefelt
Fantasie Duologue for Organ and Orchestra - Boellmann (At the Organ, PHILIP DORE)
Tone Poem, ' Finlandia' - Sibelius