Relayed from the Pump Rooms, Leamington Spa
Musical Director, EDNA WILLOUGHBY
From Birmingham
WEBER'S chamber music is rarely heard. This, his best piece of work in that medium. belongs to 1819, when the Composer was thirty-three, and his powers were in full maturity. It is his Op. 63. The music (originally written for the unusual combination of Pianoforte, Flute and 'Cello) was dedicated to Weber's friend and physician, Dr. Jungh. We are to hear three of its four Movements — the Scherzo which hints at peasant dances, the Slow Movement, here called the 'Huntsman's Lament' (originally, 'Shepherd's Plaint'), which has a tune much akin to that of a German folk-song, and the care-free Finale.
THIS piece was composed about the same time as the Trio to which we have been listening (it is Weber's Op. 65). and its spirit will be felt to be much akin to that of the lively Movements of the chamber work.
There is a ' programme ' to the Invitation.
This is how Weber described it: 'At a ball a gentleman approaches a lady and asks for the pleasure of a dance. At first, she hesitates ; he presses ; she consents. Now they converse more easily. He begins ; she replies. Now for the dance ! They take their places and wait for it to begin. Then follows the dance. At its close the gentleman expresses his thanks, the lady bows. and " the rest is silence." '
NORMAN O'NEILL is an Irishman who studied music in London (under Dr. Arthur Somervell) and at Frankfort, and who settled down some years ago as the musical director, at the Hay-market Theatre under the Frederick Harrison régime.
He is the Composer of a number of concert and chamber works, but his position as master of the music at the most artistic centre of theatrical production in London gave a direction to his talent, and his career has become definitely associated with the theatre and theatre music. The opportunity and the man were happily met, and Mr. O'Neill's music was one of the remembered features when Maeterlinck's The Blue Bird and Barrie's Mary Rose were produced at the Haymarket.
THE LONDON RADIO DANCE BAND
Directed by SIDNEY FIRMAN
TED SAUNDERS (Mimic)
Tony TucK (Banjo)
(From Birmingham) :
St. Martin's Male Voice Quartet. ' The Eyes of Youth —a play by John Overton. Margaret Ablethorpe (Pianoforte)
THE ALFRED CAVE SEXTET
RAYMOND NEWELL (Bass)
A Musical Comedy in Three Acts by W. A. FEATHERSTONE
From Birmingham
Dramatis Persoæ
Act I. The lawn in front of Officers' Mess,
King's Own Shetland Highlanders, at Albuhera Barracks, Aldershot.
Act II. On the lawn at Phyllis Court,
Henley.
Act III. The Golden Palace, Rupiabad.
The performance produced and conducted by W. A. FEATHERSTONE