MUSIC
THE Promenade Concerts start at the Albert Hall on July 22nd, and run for eight weeks until September 16th. The orchestras concerned are the London Symphony, the London Philharmonic and the B.B.C. Symphony, which are conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent and Basil Cameron ; and some of the Saturday evening concerts are being given by the B.B.C. Opera Orchestra, which is conducted by Stanford Robinson. Programmes and performers are mostly very familiar. Is less music being written, is the standard sinking, or is it, perhaps, that fewer composers are writing orchestral works of a sort which can be included in an ordinary Prom. programme ? Bax's new piano concerto for the left hand (July 25th), Gordon Jacob's Second Symphonic Suite (August /1st), Benjamin Frankel's May Day Overture (August 25th), Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on the Old 104th Psalm Tune (September 15th) and Elizabeth Lutyens'si viola concerto (September 8th) may be a distinguished, but they are a very small, collection of new British works. Clive Douglas's Wirra Warra Waal (July 26th), Honegger's Prelude, Fugue and Postlude (August 4th) and Bartok's viola concerto (September 5th) are a less than meagre allowance of new works from beyond the Channel.
If wholly new works are not to be had, might not a place have been found for the still unfamiliar works of our own contemporaries ? Rawsthorne's Concerto for Strings is being given on July 28th, but might we not have had his piano or violin concerto or the Symphonic Studies? Rubbra's name does not appear anywhere ; surely one of his symphonies should have found a place if there is room for symphonies by J. C. Bach and Shostakovich. Hoist is represented only by the inevitable ballet music from The Perfect Fool and two Planets; when shall we hear Egdon Heath? On the other hand, Bax, Walton and Ireland are well represented, and Elgar has a very lion's share. The Music Makers (September 7th) could surely have stood down in favour of Hoist's Hymn of Jesus, and Elgar's very doubtful arrangements of Bach and Handel are hard to justify.
Having indulged in a personal grouse, let us see what are the special beauties of the season. Among soloists there is only one name unfamiliar to me—that of Amy Shuard, who is playing Rachmaninov's first piano concerto (also unfamiliar) on August 16th. Victoria de los Angeles is singing Strauss's three last songs on August 24th, Mozart and Fella on August 29th ; and Suzanne Danco, on the 30th, sings Ravel's Sclzeherazade. Kathleen Ferrier sings Brahms's Four Serious Songs (a strange experiment for any woman) on September 14th, when Solomon is playing the same' composer's first piano concerto. On September 11th, when Vaughan Williams conducts his own fifth symphony, Clifford Curzon plays, Beethoven's fourth piano concerto, and two days later Mozart's C minor concerto and Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain. On August 15th Jean Pougnet and Zara Nelsova play Brahms's rarely', heard concerto for violin and violoncello. All these performances should be well worth hearing even to the more sophisticated listener,' who may also, in lighter mood, fancy the Brahms's Liebeslieder oil August 2nd, when Sir Malcolm Sargent and Ernest Lush will pla the pianoforte duet part. Constant Lambert's ballet suit, Comm!' on August 8th will no doubt prove to be a most deft and tasteful arrangement of the Purcell music on which it is based.
MARTIN COOPER.
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