Part Songs by the London Four.

'The Wicked Uncle discourses on M'Bung.'

'Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby'

by SIDNEY FIRMAN

directed
by SIDNEY FIRMAN

THE Cornish Riviera Express does the longest non-stop run in the world; from Paddington to Plymouth, and obviously, therefore, it is only driven by the aristocracy of the iron road. Driver Rowse has been in the service of the Great Western Railway since 1878; he has been a driver for thirty-two years, and for the last ten years he has taken his turn in driving the Cornish Riviera Express, about which he will talk to-night.

The Violin Sonatas given in the original style, by WILLIAM PRIMROSE (with Bass played on the Violoncello) by AMBROSE GAUNTLETT
TO-NIGHT the Third and Fourth Sonatas are to be played.
The THIRD SONATA begins with the usual dignified preludial slow Movement, and goes on to a fugal Movement, with a ' Subject ' that hops downwards, in fine feather.
The beginning of the succeeding Slow Movement is melodically, though not rhythmically, like the opening of the Chorus 'And with His stripes we are healed,' in Messiah, the Composer of which work, by the way, knew Corelli in Rome, at the meetings of a certain 'Academy of the Arcadians,' a Society ' to further the cultivation of the sciences and to awake the taste for humane letters.' Corelli was a member of the Academy, and Handel visited its meetings as a guest.
There are two quick Movements after this slow one, the earlier having a Violin part in constantly running short notes, and the Last Movement being a sportive Jig.
The FOURTH SONATA has its Movements rather differently arranged from those of the Third. The first two, the slow one and the fugal one, correspond in style to the first two in the earlier works, but here a few slow bars only are inserted before the running Third Movement comes, in three-time. The Violin part of this has the alternations of two-to-a-beat and three-to-a-beat that we noticed in a Movement in this style in the Second Sonata, played last night.
A short, slow Movement gives a change of key and mood, and then comes the final quick Movement. This, after its few square-rhythmed opening bars, becomes a Jig, in which the Soloist and Accompanist toss the characteristic rhythm about from one to the other.

FOR the first time in history, the world has now an International Parliament in the Council and Assembly of the League of Nations, where representatives of countries as far apart as Canada and Siam meet and confer. Professor Noel Baker attended the Peace Conference—at which the League was founded-as a member of the League of Nations Section of the British Delegation, and until 1922 he worked on the Secretariat of the League itself as personal assistant to the Secretary-General, so he has had every opportunity of finding out how the Council and Assembly really work.

THE WIRELESS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, conducted by JULIUS HARRISON
MARIE WILSON (Solo Violin)
PART I.
SOME pebple think of Sir Hubert Parry only as the serious one-time Director of the Royal College of Music.
There was another side to his nature, and a very delightful one. The English Suite shows that lighter side of Parry-his characteristically British straightforwardness, activity, and jolly tunefulness.
There are seven pieces in the full Suite-a lively
Prelude, a dainty Minuet, a stately Sarabande, a skittish Caprice, a graceful Pastoral, a slow folk-songy Movement of a Scottish tinge and, last of all, what the score calls a ' Frolic.'

(Solo Violin, MARIE WILSON)
MISS MARIE WILSON is a very young violinist (still in the early twenties) and she only left the Royal College of Music at the end of last summer term. Whilst there, however, she won the Morely Scholarship and the Gowland Harrison Exhibition, and also the Tagore Gold Medal for the most distinguished pupil of the year ; for some time she played in the Queen's Hall Orchestra, and when she left the College, she received a very high tribute from its Director, Sir Hugh Allen. Since then she has played with notable success at important concerts in London and elsewhere, including the Promenade Concerts at the Queen's Hall, the Eastbourne Municipal Concerts, and the Subscription Concerts, British Association Concerts and Musical Club at Oxford.
ONE of Brahms' most intimate friends was the great violinist, Joachim. This Violin Concerto, the only one Brahms ever wrote, was dedicated to him, and Joachim, besides taking a great interest in its composition, and advising about some points of fiddle writing, himself wrote the cadenzas for it.
Early Violin Concertos were not much more than means of display for the soloist. In this of Brahms the violinist is a partner with the Orchestra, bound up in the bundle of its life ; there is a perfect balance between the works of the two, and each contributes equally to the building up of the work.
There are three Movements: a fully-developed Quick one, a serene Slow one, and an energetic Finale, in which we find some gay Hungarian colour.
THE Conductor of the evening is also to be welcomed as one of its Composers. His Worcestershire Suite has already enjoyed a good deal of favour-in performance at concerts and festivals, as a gramophone record, and in its arrangement for Piano solo. The Suite comprises four movements.
I. The Shraidey Round.
II. Redstone Rock. 'Redstone (Old English Radestone) Rock, once the home of Layamon, the British historian, about A.D. 1200, now the summer home of thousands of sand-martins.'
III. Pershore Plums.
IV. The Ledbury Parson. To the memory of those two inimitable artists. Bob and Abel Spragg , who could be heard interpreting this disreputable Worcestershire song over many glasses of beer, any Saturday evening in the 'nineties, at the Bridge Inn, Stourport.'

PART II.
ORCHESTRA

FETES is one of a set of three Orchestral Nocturnes, each of which has a pictorial idea as its basis.
The composer told us that in this piece he had tried to suggest in music 'the restless dancing rhythm of the atmosphere, interspersed with sudden flashes of light.' There is also a dazzling procession that he imagines passing in glory across the sky.
His aim, then, is to give in terms of sound, imaginative impressions of the rhythmic effects of light and of cloud formations.

In a Burlesque from the London and Welsh International Rugby Match as played at Twickenham, called 'At the Sale.'

in Items from their Repertoire and A MUSICAL NEWS BULLETIN