Knighthood For Conductor Of Halle Orchestra Is Widely Acclaimed

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 15087, 22 September 1949, Page 5

Knighthood For Conductor Of Halle Orchestra Is Widely Acclaimed

Music and Musicians

MODERN BRITISH COMPOSER'S LATEST STAGE WORK

John Barbirolli's knighthood, announced in the June Birthday Honours, spread reoicings far beyond Manchester, to which Barbirolli came from a Now York pes! to raise the Halle Orchestra from it's mid-war uncertainties to a position of international a eel an h.

His orchestra (writes Arthur Jacobs in -Coming Events") looks unorthodox; it has a woman timpanist and a woman first trombone, but it sounds straight in the line of great partnerships of players andconductor. 1, J.8.", as musicians call him, is noted also for his orchestral transcriptions, especially for strings (he was once a 'cellist): a viola concerto arranged from movements by Handel had its first performance, at the hands of Frederick Riddle and the Hade Orchestra, at the recent Cheltenham Festival of British Contemporary Music. His wiie, Evelyn Rothwell, is a noted oboe-player, and has been heard several times in concertos with her husband's orchestra. "Let's Make An Opera" Benjamin Britten's latest stage work had its world premiere in a hall seating only three hundred—the Jubilee Hall at Aldeburgh, whose annual Festival of Music and the Arts took place recently. This unsnoilt litte town on the Suffolk coast, where Britten now lives, is the scene of his most famous opera, "Peter Grimes," which, in performances from Budapest to Boston, has done more than any other composition to put pest-war British music on the world map. "Let's Make an Opera!" the new work, is an entertainment for children, with children in the cast and four songs for the audience to sing. The first part is a play about an opera; the second part is the opera itself, "The Little Sweep." It is simple without being patronising, charming without being arch: a new kind of introduction to opera, reflecting equal credit on Britten's music and on the text by Eric Crozier. It is a parish-hall show—the orchestra consists only of piano duet, string quartet, and drums—and cries out for an officially-spon-sored touring company to take it round to the children of Britain. "Nottingham Symphony" Nottingham's celebrations of the 500th anniversary of its Royal Charter included a major musical event. The local co-operative society commissioned from the wellknown composer Alan Bush a "Nottingham Symphony" and presented it to the city, the manuscript being formally accepted by the Lord Mayor a.ter the first performance . This performance was given at Nottingham's Albert Hall by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under David Ellenberg, the youngmusical director of the city's Cooperative Arts Centre. With this, Nottingham becomes the first city in Britain—the composer believes, in the world to have a symphony written expressly for a civic celebration. Suitab.y, each movement of the symphony is linked with some aspect of the town's history—the first movement, for instance, with Sherwood Forest and Robin Hood. The work is not the brilliant, showy kind which it might have been temnting to write for such a festive occasion: but it has beauty and power, and we shall see Nottingham's name on our concert programmes in seasons to come. Orchestra's Anniversary In the musical world the limelight of publicity is turned, perhaps too frequently, upon the huge orchestra, the organisation of 110 to 125 members. But in Britain a new manifestation of musical progress is attracting considerable attention—the medium-sized orchestra, developed by loving care given to detail and extreme sensitivity in interpretation into the perfect vehicve for musical expression. Of this genre the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra has :orced itself into the front rank through sheer merit. The celebration of its 57th anniversary on October 22 and 23, under its Conductor Mr Rudolph Schwarz, will bring it the accolade of final recognition as an orchestra of finished power and significance.