Incidentally, the effort of concentrating on the Schiinlserg " Variations"
was not made the easier by a peremptory inter- ference of the Greenwich time signal. And in the afternoon of the . same day, Brahm,s' First Symphony was shut off five
• tes before the conclusion for the broadcast of a gale warning. The B.B.C.'s own explanation of these exasperating occurrences is not very clear. With regard to the time signal it says," the listener who feels murderous at hearing those ' pips ' at the end of his Symphony Concert may do well to think of the man standing in the Chart Room watching the chronometers and Ws-Siting only for the ' pips.' " In other words, broadcasting is both a utility service and an entertain- ment service, and the former takes precedence over the latter. But then the B.B.C. goes on to say, "of course, when it is Ithown in advance that some important programme will run beyond the time when the Greenwich Signal is given, it is :impressed on all Stations except 510‘.." Is the implication, then, that Schonberg was not considered " important " ? If so, I wonder the B.B.C. should think it worth while to bring him over from Vienna to give an authoritative rendering of single specimen of his music.
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