Cliff Michelmore introduces your request records

Reginald Porter-Brown at the BBC theatre organ

and his Band with the Hedley Ward Trio

Conducted by Lieutenant Basil H. Brown
Director of Music John Lewis (tenor)

with Jean Melville (piano)

A summer holiday programme
Edited and produced by Lionel Gamlin
Saturday Showboat
A summer' holiday concert with Billy Mayerl and the Rhythm Players
Harry Dawson
The London Banjo Club
Percy Edwards

Surrey v. Nottinghamshire
Glamorganshire v. West Indies
Commentary by Rex Alston from the Oval and by John Arlott from St. Helen's Ground, Swansea

and his Miniature Orchestra

Surrey v. Nottinghamshire
Glamorganshire v. West Indies
Further commentaries

with Marion Williams

Diomed Handicap Stakes
Commentary on the race by Raymond Glendenning , assisted by Tom E. Webster as race-reader
From Epsom

Surrey v. Nottinghamshire
Glamorganshire v. West Indies
Further commentaries

The Spa Orchestra
Directed by Tom Jenkins
William Biggs (tenor)

Surrey v. Nottinghamshire
Glamorganshire v. West Indies
Further commentaries

The Geoff Love Group

Surrey v. Nottinghamshire
Glamorganshire v. West Indies
Further commentaries

and his Samba Orchestra

Surrey v. Nottinghamshire
Glamorganshire v. West Indies
Close of play scores

including cricket close of play scores

Joan Hammond (soprano)
James Johnston (tenor)
BBC Opera Chorus
(Trained by Alan G. Melville)
BBC Opera Orchestra (Leader, John Sharpe)
Conductor, Stanford Robinson
From the Royal Albert Hall, London

Italian Opera - Russian Ballet
Overture, La Gazza Ladra ....... Rossini
7.43 app. Recit and Aria: Madre pietosa vergine (La Forza del Destino) ....... Verdi
7.53 app. Two Intermezzi From Cavalleria Rusticana .... Mascagni
From The Jewels of the Madonna ..... Wolf-Ferrari
8.3 app. Recit and Aria: Celeste Aida (Aida) .... Verdi
8.10 app. Torch Dance and Cavalcade (Romeo and Juliet) ... Zandonai
8.23 app. Duet, Act 1 (Madam Butterfly) .... Puccini
8.38 app. Invocation to the Moon: March of the Mandarins (Turandot) ..... Puccini

(James Johnston broadcasts by permission of the General Administrator of the Covent Garden Opera Trust)

The feathered villain of Rossini's opera La Gazza Ladra is our old friend, the thieving magpie. He does not, however, appear in Rossini's sparkling overture, but the military character of the opening theme informs us that the hero is about to be called up to his regiment.
The recitative and aria 'Madre, pietosa vergine' comes from the second scene of Act 2 of Verdi's opera "The Force of Destiny". The heroine, Leonora, finds herself outside a Franciscan monastery at dawn. As she hears the monks singing, she kneels in prayer, resolving to ask for sanctuary.
There is no need to know the blood-thirsty plots of "Cavalleria Rusticana" or "The Jewels of the Madonna" in order to enjoy the music of their intermezzi, nor, indeed, need we know in the love-song "€˜Celeste Aida"€™ that the Egyptian general Radames has fallen in love with the Ethiopian captive Aida, and proposes to lay all his glory as an offering at her feet.
Zandonai's "Romeo and Juliet", unlike most settings, is not taken from Shakespeare, but adapted by Rossato from the Renaissance romances of the two legendary lovers. It is an unequal work, and rarely heard, but this excerpt fully displays the quality of its most effective pages.
Both in his early opera "Madam Butterfly" and in his final, unfinished opera "Turandot" Puccini took great pains to achieve authentic local colour in his music. In this respect the "Invocation to the Moon" and the "March of the Mandarins" uncannily evoke the atmosphere of legendary China. But in the duet from "Madam Butterfly" it is the broad emotional curve of Puccinian melody that is overwhelming. (Julian Herbage)

Herbert Lom takes you on an "Enchanted Journey" in which Leonard Cassini at the piano helps him to recall the sights and sounds of places they like to remember.
(BBC recording)

Part 2

Tomorrow, a party of British French, and Swiss climbers set; out to climb the 14,000-foot peak. Tonight, Raymond Baxter intro. duces the members of the party broadcasting from their base camp, the Hörnli Hut, high in the Swiss Alps

Lew Stone and his Orchestra
Edmundo Ros and his Rumba Band
The Johnny Paradise Orchestra with the Mermaids