. Old Christchurch Road, directed by GILBERT STACEY

Old Christchurch Road, directed by GILBERT STACEY

The Wireless Trio: Reginald S. Mouat (Violin); Thomas E. Illingworth (Violoncello); Arthur Marston (Piano)

Beethoven, unlike some of the great Composers, was quite grown up (a young man of twenty-five) before his 'Opus 1' (which includes this Trio) was published. To his pupil Ries he later related how the three Trios in this 'Opus' were first introduced. Ries tells us that it was at a soiree at the house of Prince Liclinowsky (who had been a pupil and friend of Mozart, and who was greatly impressed by Beethoven's talent). 'Most of the artists and music-lovers were invited,' he says, 'especially Haydn, for whose opinion all were eager. The Trios were played, and at once commanded extraordinary attention. Haydn also said many pretty thing about them' There are four Movements in the First Trio.

The First Movement is a firm, confident, piece of work. Right at the start we hear a characteristic device of the Composer - that loud chord, followed by a soft phrase. The chord, as it were, calls us to attention as it opens the First Main Tune. The cheery music swings along for a few bars, until the Piano begins to run up and down the keyboard, warning us that the Second Main Tune is coming. Very softly its first detached chords are sounded, and then it runs its course - a longer one than that of the First Tune. It ends in an even more decided manner than that did, and the Composer begins to work out the Movement, at fair length, using the materials he has just laid forth for our inspection.

Second Movement. Beethoven almost idolized Mozart (who only died a few years before this work was written), and there is evidence, not of imitation of his great predecessor, but of the influence of his idol. Listen to the Piano's opening tune of this Slow Movement. It reminds one very much of Mozart. The whole Movement is full of grace, and in the middle, where the minor-key Tune comes in, there is, we feel, rather deeper sentiment and higher emotion.

IT was Beethoven who turned the often rather conventional Third Movement piece, the Minuet, into the Scherzo, a thing of greater variety and resource. This Scherzo goes at a fast pace, beginning in a quiet, ' 'pussyfoot' manner, and rising to a good climax very soon. Then the three instruments start throwing the First Main Tune from one to another, but soon come back to their first way of stating it, and so the opening section of the Scherzo is completed, with a very decided feeling of ' so much for that idea ' about its soft but emphatic close. Follows the middle part, or ' Trio ' (an old name for this part of the Movement; in pieces for more than three players the section used to be given to three of them, for contrast's sake). The Trio is very short and light-an excellent foil to the first section, which duly returns. A dainty little Coda (a mere whisk of the tail) is added.

THIS is a rollicking, full-speed Movement that makes a good deal of use of- that opening
Piano motif of two notes, and ' keeps the pot a-boiling,' though its Main Tunes are in quite different moods. These arc easily to be picked out. After the opening Tune, the Violin has the second one (Piano rippling along below three-to-a-beat).

S.B. from London

'The Soudan-
Past and Present' (2)

S.B. from London (10.10 Local News)