MUSIC
Novelties at the Proms
SINCE the B.B.C. assumed the responsibility for the Promenade Con- certs, there has been an increasing tendency to relegate new works to the second (and unbroadcast) part of the programme. This is rather less than fair to the composers, whose works are only reached after the orchestra has played and the audience listened to what amounts to a complete concert programme. Moreover it seems to argue a belief that the public is not interested in new music. I am prepared to be told that the majority of listeners—even of those who do listen—want' to hear their favourite classics. It is quite right that they should. But I decline to believe that they are so conserva- tive that they are not prepared to lend an ear to new compositions. The treatment accorded to novelties may explain the paucity of important works in this year's programmes. I have, of course, no means of knowing what works were available for performance, but it would, not surprise one if a composer felt that the second part of a Promenade Concert was not, perhaps, the best place for the favour- able launching of a new composition by which he set great store. So it is that, in place of symphonies and concertos, we have overtures and snites arranged from filni-music and other brief works. Schon- berg's Pianforte Concerto is a possible exception to the rule. Of the compositions performed to date Hadley's setting of a poem by Alan Pryce-Jones for soprano (Miss Isobel Baillie), chorus and orchestra, Rawsthorne's " Corteges" Overture, and the overture from Hindemith's ballet " Cupid and Psyche " have proved the most interesting. Hadley's work is a noble tribute to the younger genera- tion that has saved our country, expressed in a musical language of great dignity. Vaughan Williams and Delius have both contributed to the formation of Hadley's style, but his music is never merely imitative. In Rawsthome's overture the contrast between various kinds of processional music is effectively exploited. Hindemith's is in his contrapuntal style, but with that new expressiveness that has informed his later compositions. Alan Bush has contributed a pot- pourri of Russian tunes blended with snatches of the c-devant
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