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Five Preludes, Nos. 20, 21, 22, 23 and 19 Impromptu in G Flat, Op. 51 Ballad in A Flat, Op. 47
Nocturne in C Sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 1 Study in G Flat, Op. 25
Waltz in E Minor (Posthumous)
WHEN Chopin was nearly thirty he published a book of twenty-four Preludes, one in each key, major and minor. They are very varied in length and character, some being simple expressions of single ideas and others well-wrought expositions of extended trains of thought.
They were written when he was staying with George Sand at Valdemosa, in Majorca, ' in a great abandoned Carthusian monastery, in one of the cells with doors bigger than the gates of Paris,' as he wrote to a friend. ' The cell is in the shape of a coffin, high, and full of dust on the vault..... Before the window orange, palm and cypress trees..... Quietness.... one may shout and r obody will hear.
In these Preludes we have every type of emotion-now gay, now feverish, even morbid, and again restful and introspective.
The name ' Impromptu ' has never been more truly applied than to the four works which Chopin calls by this name. They are shapely works, but they have much of the spontaneity of improvizations.
The Third Impromptu, in G Flat, is one of the least familiar of his pieces. More than one of his commentators finds in it that melancholy, bordering on morbidity, which was one of his characteristics. The first section is a flowing, perpetual motion section.
In the middle there is a long tenor melody.
A Ballad is generally, of course, a definite story put into the form of a song. Many people seem to have agreed that Chopin meant to convey definite stories by the instrumental pieces which he called Ballads. Chopin told Schumann that the poems of the writer Mickiewicz, greatest of Poland's national poets, inspired him.
The Third Ballad is by turns brilliant and graceful.
Many poetical interpretations have been imposed on the Nocturnes. This one in C Sharp Minor has provoked imaginative flights ranging from comparison with the song of a monk to a picture of a murder at sea !

Contributors

Unknown:
George Sand

A Comedy in Three Acts by DOUGLAS MURRAY
The Characters :
Scene : The Parlour of Mrs. Calthorpe's seaside cottage at Teignmouth, Devon.
This amusing comedy had a long run when first produced at the Royalty Theatre and has since been successfully revived. A charming widow, Mrs. Calthorpe, wilful, irresponsible, and impecunious, is left a large sum of money on condition that she marries Fergus Wimbush , hailing from Toronto, whom she has never seen. She resolves to learn all about him first and, disguised as her own parlour-maid, ' Perkins,' receives him in her Devonshire cottage. Complications follow thick and fast, but Mrs. Calthorpe is equal to them all. It is a constant favourite with amateurs, and tonight's performance should be of particular interest to those societies that are plapning to produce it this winter.

Contributors

Unknown:
Douglas Murray
Unknown:
Fergus Wimbush
Fergus Wimbush:
Cyril Raymond
Ruth (his elder sister):
May Saker
Ada his 'younger sister):
Marjorie Sebley
Mrs Calthorpe:
Iris Hoey
Robert Gilmour (her young cousin):
Derek Williams
Martha:
Joan Matheson
Mrs Hubbard:
Chloe Gibson
Winnie Hubbard (her daughter):
Sybil Jane

2LO London and 5XX Daventry

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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