Programme Index

Discover 11,128,835 listings and 279,800 playable programmes from the BBC

A Pastoral
Written by HENRY F. CHORLEY
Composed by Sir W. STERN
DALE BENNETT
Captain of the Foresters
(Robin Hood) ;
STUART ROBERTSON
THE WIRELESS CHORUS
THE WIRELESS ORCHESTRA
Conducted by STANFORD ROBINSON
QIR WILLIAM STERNDALE BENNETT was a leading figure in the Victorian world of music, and did more for his generation than we arc apt to remember now. He was one of the first students at the Royal Academy of Music, which in those days was in comparatively humble quarters off Hanover. Square. Itwasa boarding school then. He had the good luck to play at one of the Academy concerts at which Mendelssohn was present, and then and there began a friendship which had a considerable influence on Bennett's career. He visited Leipzig more than once at Mendelssohn's invitation and played and conducted his own music in the famous Gewandiiaus. Schumann was also keenly interested in the young Englishman and spoke very warmly of him in the columns of his own paper.
In the course of his long and busy career, Sir
William held many important appointments. chief of which was at the Royal Academy, whose Principal he became in 1866. He was Professor of Music at Cambridge and founder of the Bach Society
For many years the most 'popular work in its own class, The May Queen, is still a, favourite Cantata, especially with choral societies of modest size and attainment. Thoroughly melodi. ous and grateful to sing throughout, it is as good an example as we possess of the music of its day-a day before problems and revolutionary tendencies began to seek expression in terms of sound. It sets forth the joyous spirit of May Day in the freshest and most wholesome way, and its popularity is very easy to understand.
It was composed for the Leeds Festival of 1858, at which Sir William was the conductor.

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