Season 1937-8
Ninth Concert from Queen's Hall, London
(Sole Lessees, Messrs. Chappelland Co. Ltd.)
The BBC
Symphony Orchestra
Leader, Paul Beard
Conducted by WILLEM MENGELBERG
Mengelberg has been a regular conductor of the famous Concertgebouw
Orchestra of Amsterdam since 1895. He has an international reputation as a conductor, and although of late years he has not regularly appeared in England, he was once a frequent visitor as conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Society. For many years he also shared with Toscanini the post of conductor of the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.
Among modem composers,
Richard Strauss has enjoyed Mengelberg's continued interest and championship. In 1903 Mengelberg brought the Concertgebouw Orchestra to London and directed a Strauss Festival, and in 1924 he organised a Strauss Festival in Amsterdam.
Listeners will remember the magnificent reading he gave of ' Ein Heldenleben ', which is dedicated to him, when he last conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra on November 4, 1936. It will be interesting to hear his performance of the less frequently heard ' Zarathustra '.