DOROTHY LEBISH (Contralto)
IRENE SHORT (Pianoforte)
THE WIRELESS ORCHESTRA
Conducted by JOHN ANSELL
EVEN from his earliest years, Sir Frederic Cowen never had any doubt that music was to be his job in life. Already at the age of eight, he produced an operetta on the subject of Garibaldi, the libretto being by a relative of equally tender years. Sir Frederic tells us that the piece ran successfully for two nights at the home theatre. Since then the whole of his busy life has been spent in conducting and composing, and much of his music has a vivid reflection of England and English ways. The Suite to be played this evening is a happy illustration of his gift in that particular way.
THIS selection is from the opera [Samson and Delilah by Saint-Saens) which is to be broadcast from Daventry Experimental Station on November 26, and from London and Daventry on November 28; listeners will no doubt welcome an opportunity of being reminded in advance of its chief melodies. One, at least - the aria, 'Softly awakes my heart,' which Delilah sings, is by now well known to every listener.
AS is so often the case with the great Strauss's waltzes, the name really means nothing. This waltz is in no way descriptive, in the sense in which we understand descriptive music nowadays, of the Arabian Nights, and the music is as typical of the gay Vienna of Strauss's day as the Blue Danube,' or any other of his immortal dance tunes.