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MANOUG PARIKIAN (Violin)
ENGLISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Leader. Kenneth Sillito
Conducted by MEREDITH DAVIES
Part followed by an interlude

Britten PURCELL SINGERS
Boys' VOICES of the ENGLISH OPERA GROUP and CHOIR OF
ALL SAINTS, MARGARET STREET Conducted by THE COMPOSER on a gramophone record

Her Majesty's recorded Christmas Message to the Commonwealth followed by an interlude

Part
Second broadcast

A picture of Vienna's Fun City, with music by the Strauss family and songs sung by ANNELIESE ROTHENBERGER and KARL TERKAL on gramophone records

in Schwetzingen and Salzburg
JUlLLIARD STRING QUARTET Robert Mann (violin) Isadore Cohen (violin) Raphael Hillyer (viola) Claus Adam (cello)
GEZA ANDA (piano)
Recordings made available by courtesy of Austrian Radio

Opera in three acts
Music and words by Wagner
Sung in German
THE CHORUS OF THE MUNICIPAL OPERA AND THE STATE OPERA, BERLIN CHOIR OF ST. HEDWIG'S CATHEDRAL, BERLIN BERLIN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA Conducted by RUDOLF KEMPE
The action takes place in Nuremberg, about the middle of the sixteenth century
Act 1 The interior of St. Katherine's Church
Act 2 The street outside Pogner's
Act 3 Scene 1: Sachs's workshop, leading to Scene 2: A meadow on the Pegnitz

The Mastersingers of Nuremberg
No superficial Christmas connection exists with Die Meistersinger - indeed, it all takes place within the ancient circle of midsummer magic - yet there is no opera that has more to say about goodwill among men. Operas abound to satirise our weaknesses, to stir our conscience, to hymn gods or heroes or ideals: none other sends us away so reassured about the goodness to be found in simple, slighted man.
There is no contradiction here with the rest of Wagner. He may have been most vividly interested in goodwill when it was channelled towards himself (especially if financially expressed). But Beckmesser is attacked because he is small-minded; and Hans Sachs's greatness lie in his generosity of soul, above all in recognising the power of the new art that has ruffled the rules of the ancient guild he reveres.
'Honour your German masters! ' So Sachs admonishes Walther when the impatient young knight wins the contest and his bride Eva, but refuses to join the Mastersingers who have slighted him. All the most important motives of Romanticism culminate in Wagner; and the interest in the country's past, prominent among them, invokes not only heroic legend (as in The Ring), but the life of the simple burghers of the ancient townships. There is no warmer, deeper comedy in music than Die Meistersinger, no richer way of filling a long afternoon with comfort and joy. (JOHN WARRACK)

Devised and introduced by DENIS MATTHEWS
His victims: ALAN BLYTH, SIR ADRIAN BOULT, HOWARD FERGUSON, PAUL JENNINGS

Sung by the SCHOLA POLYPHONICA
HENRY WASHINGTON introduces and conducts music from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance

A Sussex childhood during the First World War adapted from his own novel by F.C. Ball with Peter Claughton, Carleton Hobbs, John Sharp and Betty Hardy.

Part 1

recalled, on the recent death of La Belle Otero by SIR HARRY LUKE

Part 2

A recital by C. R. M. BROOKES
† Introduced by GEORGE BRUCE
The current interest in ballads is concerned mainly with the sung. as opposed to the spoken, form. Mr. Brookes is a speaker of ba1-lads who combines a traditional acquaintance with ballads-he learned many from his mother-with a literary interest. His performance relates to the sung ballad, where he carries his tonal response to the point of chant. This he does without denying himself the expressive character of the spoken word.

Conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Radetzky March (Johann Strauss, senior)
Waltz: Bad'ner Mad'ln
(Komzak)
on a gramophone record