THE WORLD OF MUSIC

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 59, Issue 101, 31 May 1930, Page 11

THE WORLD OF MUSIC

By "B Natural."

That the European music world is beginning to take Britisli music very seriously is indicated in the Christian Science Monitor, whose London correspondent reports that when a week or two ago, radio stations abroaj paid Britain the compliment of an "English" evening, from points as far distant as Denmark and Austria, Hull a,nd Hungary. Paris and Rome, English music and poetry could be heard streaming in across the dark by listeners in London. Nearly every programine includet] works by Elgar. It was a strange and moving experience to hear this music, so peculiarly Englisli, returning toward home from many lands. But almost always it was phrased as if in a foreign tongue. Budapest played the "Enigma Variations" with an orchestra so capahle that the discrepancy between national idioms was particularly apparent. * * m Hungarian and English stress groupngs are ^as different as red from green, and while Elgar's music is lovely

enough to hear certain varieties of interpretations, it only yields its full and rather secret beauty to an all English performance. * * * It is not often that one hears of a conductor playing and condueting a concerto at the same time, but this was to be attempted bv Ethel Leginsken, at the Royal Albert Hall. on March 30. aecording to London press announcements. « * • The work chosen for such performance was Liszt's "Hungarian Fantasie," and the orchestra was the London Sympliony orchestra. The papers do not state wliether the soloist would stand up between the oiano solo sections and "wag the stick" for a while, and tlien sit down and play her piece, or wliether sundry nods would have to sufEce. * * * § The tenth world congress of music will be held in Vienua on June 6 and 8.