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The Poltronieri String Quartet: Alberto Poltronieri (Violin); Guido Ferrari (Violin); Fiorenzo Mora (Violin); Antonio Valisi (Violoncello)
The International String Quartet: Andre Mangeot (Violin); Boris Pecker (Violin); Frank Howard (Viola); Herbert Withers (Violoncello)
Ethel Bartlett and Rae Robertson (Duets on Two Pianofortes)

This is an even more youthful work of Mendelssohn's than the Midsummer Night's Dream Overture. It was composed when he was only sixteen. It has all the freshness and vitality which one expects from youth, but it is masterly in its command of the instruments, and in the skill with which the whole team of eight is used. In every way it betrays the hand of one who was already a master of his job; like the Midsummer Night's Dream Overture, it is music which any of the great masters might have been glad to claim as a mature work. Mendelssohn evidently had some special affection for it himself; a good many years later than its first composition he re-scored the second movement, a Scherzo, for full orchestra, and when he was conducting at one of the Philharmonic Concerts in London in 1829, he had it played in his first Symphony, instead of the Minuet movement.

The Octet is for eight string instruments, four violins, two violas, two violoncellos - a double string quartet in effect-and there are four movements. The first is bold and vigorous, the second, the slow movement, is in essence a romance, rich with Mendelssohn's graceful melody; the Scherzo is in something like the same light-hearted measure as the Midsummer Night's Dream music, recalling its fairies, and the last is in fugal form. A theme from the scherzo reappears in it; Mendelssohn was among the first of the great masters to make use of this device of recalling an earlier movement in the course of a later one.

At one youthful stage in his career Svendsen's fortunes were at rather low ebb, when a timely grant from his king saved the situation. It may well be that that has something to do with the dedication of this Octet, one of his early works, to Her Majesty the Queen of Sweden and Norway. A violinist himself, before he turned in earnest to composition, he knew well how to write for strings, and the Octet, for a double string quartet, is admirably laid out for the instruments.

POLTRONIERI and INTERNATIONAL QUARTETS Octet in E Flat, Op. 20 - Mendelssohn Allegro moderato ma con fuoco; Andante; Scherzo; Allegro leggierissimo; Presto

10.5 ETHEL BARTLETT and RAE ROBERTSON Concerto Pathetique - Liszt

10.20 POLTRONIERI and INTERNATIONAL QUARTETS Octet in One Movement - Eugene Goossens (First Performance)

10.40 ETHEL BARTLETT and RAE ROBERTSON Carnaval - Lyall Barbour
Lonely Sailing Ship (from Suite, 'St. Tropez ') - Hugo Anson
Hardanger - Arnold Bax

10.50 POLTRONIERI and INTERNATIONAL QUARTETS Scherzo from Octet in A - Svendsen

Source: Radio Times
2LO London
on 2LO London

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played by Major H. S. Browning, Mr. A. E. MANNING FOSTER, Mrs. STAFFORD NORTHOOTE , and Mr. JACK DALTON
TONIGHT'S bridge broadcast will be run on rather different lines from the two that have preceded it. The deal will not be known to the players themselves before they enter the Studio, but it will be announced over the microphone. Listeners are, therefore, asked to have ready a pack of cards, sorted into suits, so that they can deal the hand when it is announced.

Source: Radio Times

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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