Programme Index

Discover 11,128,835 listings and 278,128 playable programmes from the BBC

Conducted by Eugene Goossens
The Wireless Male Voice Chorus (Chorus-master, Stanford Robinson), assisted by The Railway Clearning House Male Voice Choir (Conductor: John E. West)
The Wireless Symphony Orchestra (Leader, S. Kneale Kelley)

'The Love Feast of the Apostles' (Wagner)
A Biblical Scene for Male Voice Chorus and Orchestra

The Love Feast of the Apostles was written soon after Wagner settled at Dresden as Chief Music Director. He had as yet only just begun his great series of Operas and Music Dramas. with Rienzi and The Flying Dutchman. He became leader of a Male Voice Choir which had not long been established at Dresden, and wrote the Love Feast for a choral Festival which he conducted in the summer of 1843 (when he was thirty). The music, which he dedicated to Frau Weinlig, the widow of his former teacher, was performed in church by over a thousand singers.

The words, written by the Composer, are based on the scene in Chapter IV of the Acts of the Apostles. The music is laid out for a large male choir, divided in several portions of the work into three smaller choirs, for each of which the music is written in the usual four vocal parts.

The work opens with an unaccompanied portion for four-part 'Full Choir of Disciples,' the words (in the English translation as published by Messrs. Novello) beginning : ' We greet you, brethren, in the Lord's name, Who at this feast in concord us unites, that we thereby may keep Him in remembrance.'

Then the Second Choir enters with the words 'We are oppressed, the mighty hate us sore..... Who can tell us how soon we part, in grief to languish?...' The Third Choir responds with 'Hold firm your trust,' and there is a dialogue between the fearful ones and the confident. The First Choir is added, singing 'Draw near, ye that hunger and are thirsty, to comfort you He doth give His flesh and blood.' So the movement goes on, the anxious ones being reassured by the majority of their fellows.

In the second part of the work (still unaccompanied) we hear the voices of the Apostles (twelve Basses sing this music), above the rest of the Choir. The twelve greet and Mess their brethren in the name of Christ, and warn them that persecution awaits them. The Apostles tell how their good works have roused the enmity of powerful foes, who have commanded them to cease their teaching.

All pray to God for strength to carry on their work of proclaiming the gospel. 'Send to us Thy Holy Ghost,' they cry.
Immediately are heard 'Voices from Above' singing 'Peace be yours, I am at hand, and My Spirit is with you... Be not afraid.'
Here the Orchestra enters, and in the next section there is a gradual increase of tone, while the Choir sings ' What rushing now fills the air? ...Salute we Thee, Thou Holy Ghost, for whom we prayed.....' The Apostles bid them 'give ear to what the Spirit hath to us declared. Though men may threaten, their threats are all in vain.' They then charge the faithful to go and 'bear joyful witness to the world of your Redeemer's wondrous deeds.' The disciples respond joyfully, and with an ascription of praise to God the work Comes to its end.

Contributors

Conducted By:
Eugene Goossens
Unknown:
Kneale Kelley
Unknown:
Frau Weinlig

(Continued)
In The Youth of Hercules, the fourth and last of Saint-Saens' Symphonic Poems, he takes for his hero Hercules, one of whose exploits had formed the subject of his earlier orchestral work, Ompilule's Spinning Wheel.
He prints in his score the outline of the plot. 'Mythology tells,' he says, 'how Hercules in early years saw two paths in life - that of dalliance in pleasure,' and that of virtue. Indifferent to the seductions of nymphs and bacchantes, the hero chooses the way of struggle and combat, at the end of which he discerns through the flames of the funeral pyre the reward of immortality.

Love, the Magician is a one-act Ballet, concerned with Andalusian gipsy life. Candelas, a young, beautiful, and passionate gipsy woman, has loved a handsome man of her own race. After his death she falls in love with Carmelo, another young gipsy, but is haunted by the jealous spectre of her former lover, of which she cannot free herself. Eventually, the ghost is laid, and Candelas and Carmelo are united. The Suite was compiled by de Falla from extracts from his ballet music.

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HOSPITAL treats no fewer than 800 patients a day in the live buildings of which it consists. It has a large and ever-increasing debt, and until this is wiped off, no attempt can be made to carry out much-needed improvements, such as an extension to the Infant Welfare Department.
Mr. T. P. O'Connor is one of the best-known men in the country. As Father of the House of Commons he might almost be called a venerable figure, but the unfailing liveliness of his writing seems to belie the fact that he is also one of the doyens of Fleet Street.
Contributions should be sent to
[address removed]

Contributors

Unknown:
Mr. T. P. O'Connor
Unknown:
Mrs. Joseph Gluckstein

2LO London

Appears in

About this data

This data is drawn from the Radio Times magazine between 1923 and 2009. It shows what was scheduled to be broadcast, meaning it was subject to change and may not be accurate. More