Great Ballet Impressario

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30480, 30 June 1964, Page 10

Great Ballet Impressario

“Homage to Diaghilev,” a 8.8. C. sketch of the great Russian impresario who burst into Western Europe with companies presenting classical Russian ballet and opera (Paris 1909 and London 1911), can be heard from 3YC at 7.45 on Saturday evening. The Russian troupe rejected toe-dancing at the principal element, the two-feet-turned-out-in-a-straight-line stance, tight-lacing, and other conventions, and brought back into the European limelight the male dancer.

Diaghilev commissioned composers, including Igor Stravinsky (“firebird,” “Petroucha,” . “The Rite of Spring,” and “The Nightingale.”), Falla (“The ThreeCornered Hat”), Ravel (“Daphnis and Cloe”), Milaud and Poulenc. Around him he collected an able and keen group of dancers, including Pavlova and Nijinsky. Grace Lovat Fraser begins the programme by describing the evening of ballet which she attended in Paris in 1909. Arnold Haskell, a ballet historian, recalls the' state of ballet in the early years of the century. Anton Dblin, a British dancer “discovered” by Diaghilev and the late Constant Lambert, the first English composer commissioned to write a ballet for the Diaghilev company, are heard describing his knowledge of the arts.

Ben Greet’s pastoral players in the grounds of Downing College, Cambridge, and she is now acting in “The' Reluctant Peer” by William DouglasHome, brother of the British Prime Minister. At the party she scoffed at the idea of retiring: “I will work as long as anybody wants me to . . . I hope to go on to be 100.” In a 8.8. C. programme to be broadcast from 3YC on Saturday evening at 10 p.m., Dame Sybil Thorndike talks about aspects of her career—including how she came to create Shaw’s Saint Joan. Hadyn And Boulez On Wednesday at 8.48 p.m. 3YC will begin a series of 8.8. C. studio concerts which present contemporary works with music of other periods. The first broadcast is of Haydn and Boulez. The Hayden work

is the string quartet in G minor, nicknamed the “Rider” or the “Horseman” after its opening allegro, which is played by the Juilliard Quartet. The contemporary work is by Pierre Boulez, is one of the three best-known young serialists. He is a Parisian and a former pupil of Messiaen. His work is “Le Marteau Sans Maitre,” based on a poem by Rene Char which has violent imagery and surrealism. In four of the nine numbers a contralto sings fragments of the verse. There are six instrumentalists: bass flute, viola, guitar, xylorimba, vibraphone and percussion, the latter player having to arm himself with not less than 16 separate pieces of percussion, not counting drumsticks or beaters. The contralto is Rosemary Phillips and the New Music Ensemble is conducted by John Carewe.