from the South Pier, Blackpool
Lina Pagliughi (soprano): Di piacer mi balza il cor (The Thievish Magpie) (Rossini). So anch 'io la virtu magica (Don Pasquale ) (Donizetti)
Ezio Pinza (bass): 0 tu, Palermo
(Sicilian Vespers) (Verdi). Suore, che riposate (Robert the Devil) (Meyerbeer)
Conchita Supervia (mezzo-soprano) : Card Scene (Carmen) (Bizet)
Georges Thil (tenor): 0 noble
Lame étincelante, and Ah! Tout est fini (Both from Le Cid) (Massenet)
Claudia Muzio (soprano): Voi lo sapete o mamma (Cavalleria rusticana) (Rustic Chivalry) (Mascagni). Cast Diva (Norma) (Bellini)
Directed by Rene Tapponnier from the Carlton Hotel
The BBC Midland Orchestra
Conducted by Leslie Heward
Smetana's opera The Secret was produced at the New Czech Theatre, Prague, in 1878-twelve years later than The Bartered Bride. It was the composer's last opera but one ; he was already deaf when he wrote it. Like The Bartered Bride it is full of scenes of the life of the people and the music is as gay and characteristic as anything Smetana ever wrote.
(Solo clarinet, RICHARD WALTHEW)
Only a few months before his death Mozart wrote a concerto for his friend Stadler, a fine player of the clarinet, for whom, two years before, he had written a quintet having a prominent part for his instrument.
There are the usual three movements, the first and last abounding in vitality and resource, and the middle (slow) one in particular containing some lovely decorative work for the soloist.
Bizet's Symphony No. 1, in C, appears to have been entirely forgotten until February, 1935, when its first performance was given at Basle by Felix Weingartner. It was probably composed during the time that Bizet was studying under Halevy. Bizet was then about fifteen years of age. The manuscript is preserved in the library of the Paris Conservatoire. The four movements are designed on the lines of a classical symphony, and although the composer uses the idiom of his period there is a striking individuality about the treatment, particularly as regards the orchestration which is highly original and piquant in the French style.
