The B.B.C.
and British Music
Mr. E.J.Moeran writes to comment
on the B.B.C.’s recent concerts of British music, and on our article
arising therefrom, of last Saturday. He says:
"It is easy to criticise, and,
after all, the B.B.C. deserves praise for what it has done, But
I heartily agree that we ought to get back to the old system at
the ‘Proms’.
"Works that prove their merit at the ‘Proms’
should be repeated at the winter symphony concerts - but not segregated.
"With one line of argument
I distinctly do not agree, and that is the suggestion that the
fact of a man’s being a professor at the R.A.M. or R.C.M. entitles
his works to a hearing at Queen’s Hall. In the dreadful old days
the Philharmonic used automatically to produce whatever orchestral
stuff the bigwigs of the Academy and the College turned out. We
don’t want the B.B.C. to land us back into that.
"It was a pity an opportunity
was not found to include something by Jacob, and I should have
liked to hear something by Finzi, Rubbra and Elizabeth Maconchy,
who seem to claim attention more than anyone else of that generation.
It is high time Miss Maconchy’s fine work, ‘The Land’, was heard
again.
"A serious omission
from the programme was the name of Edward German. He is interesting
historically, apart from the value of his music. In the 1890s,
when others were purveying second-hand Brahms, German was producing
symphonies and suites with a distinctly English flavour and original
character.
"Peter Warlock should
have been given a place. He was our outstanding song-writer since
the Tudors. I should have represented Cyril Scott by his piano
concerto; it is Scott at his high-water mark, and is not widely
enough known."
Notes
Gerald Finzi, English composer 1901-1956
Edmund Rubbra, English composer
1901-1986
Elizabeth Maconchy, English composer
d.1990
Edward German, English composer, famous for his
opera ‘Merrie England’.
