by HAROLD E. DARKE , relayed from St. Michael's, Cornhill.
: Mr. E. KAY ROBINSON
, ' Fishes Which Go Fishing'
: 'Makers of Modern
Europe-Gambetta.'
GAMBETTA, more than any other man, made the Third French Republic, brought it safely out of the stress and storm and peril of 1870, and guarded it until, at his death in 1882, it was established and secure. It was he who, after the great disaster of Sedan in the Franco-Prussian War, declared the Republic to replace the fallen Empire, and became Minister of the Interior in the Government of National Defence. Later, when the siege of Paris had begun, he escaped from the invested city in a balloon, and performed prodigies in raising armies to continue the war. All his efforts could not, of course, prevent a humiliating peace ; but he was returned to the assembly in July, 1871, and his groat influence helped enormously- when it was directed in support of the Government-to strengthen the Republic against its many enemies. His subsequent career was chequered and stormy; lie was twice imprisoned for political offences, and then again he led a Ministry until the year of his death ; but throughout his vicissitudes his influence, both in Franco and with foreign observers, remained of paramount importance, and none of his many errors can detract from his reputation as, in a sense, the father of modern France.
What Are the Stars
Made Of ? by Captain Maurice Ainslie ; Stories of King Arthur : (13) How Sir Tristram Went Into the Wilds ' ; Songs and Piano Solos
Mr. JAMES AGATE : Dramatic Criticism
By a WIRELESS PIONEER
K.C.B. : ' The
Quaintness of Inventions ' (Under the auspices of The Institute of Patentees)
THIS talk is being given under the auspices of the Institute of Patentees, of which Lord Askwith was President last year. He has also been President of the British Science Guild, Arbitrator in many industrial disputes, and Chief Industrial Commissioner from 1911to 1919.
Fourth Week-Pianoforte Sonatas
Interpreted by EDGAR BAINTON
Sonata in C Minor, Op. Posthumous (First Part) :
Allegro, Adagio, Menuetto.
IF you were to look through the programmes of all the high-class concerts given in London during a season, you would gather that one of the favourite composers of the world was
Franz Schubert. You would also find that it was the singers that did most to keep his name alive. There would be a few orchestral performances of his Unfinished Symphony. Here and there a Chamber Music party would be playing his
Trout Quintet. Pianists would, very rarely, play one of his smaller pieces, or a long Fantasia called The Wanderer. The rest would be songs. The vogue of the songs is reasonable, for Schubert was the-greatest of all song-composers. But the almost total neglect of Schubert's Piano Sonatas is unjust, for these works, of which he wrote ten, contain a great deal of original and beautiful music.
A common objection to Schubert's larger instrumental works, such as these, is their excessive length-or rather a certain long-winded habit of which Schubert was sometimes guilty in laying out his thoughts ; the music, they say, is spread rather thin. Occasionally, it must be admitted, the objection holds. But it is no good reason for not playing those works of Schubert to which it does not apply, and of these there is no lack of examples in Mr. Bainton's programme for the week. The work with which Mr. Bainton opens his recitals is one of the most individual in the series. The abrupt opening bars and the rushing passages that follow set the tone of the FIRST MOVEMENT (quick), in which storm and calm are brought into contrast, with storm predominating.
The ADAGIO (Slow Movement) opens with a hint of Schubert's gift of melody making. As it proceeds, we discover that what promised to be an Idyll expands into a romantic Ballad, at times heavy with conflict.
The MENUETTO is a Minuet only in so far as it keeps to a steady triple beat and is formal in its general design (i.e., first section-second section -first section again). As a piece of musical expression it is disturbed and plaintive.
Local Announcements.
THE WIRELESS ORCHESTRA, conducted by JOHN ANSELL
