MUSIC
Chairman: F.
WAINE, ESQ.
Secretary: R. G. BEAN. Gramophone Librarian: R. G. LE PLA. Choral Soc. Secretary:
N. WORSLEY. The Friday Lunchtime Gramophone Recitals have been continued, although poorly attended, and have maintained a good standard. R. G. Le Pla, in particular, gave some very interesting and instructive comments on Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni", from which he played selections. Other recitals have been given by N. J. Dick, T. Chilman, and the Secretary. On Friday, 24th February, Mr. Waine gave the inaugural recital on the Grand Piano wihch Mrs. Dronfield has so kindly loaned to the School. Amongst the large audience we were very pleased to welcome Mrs. Dronfield, who was attending a Music Society meeting for the first time. The following music was played :Sonata quasi una Fantasia in C sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2—Beethoven. R.
Adagio sostenuto—Allegretto--Presto agitato. Romance in F sharp, Op. 28, No. 2—Schumann. Prelude in G minor, Op. 23, No. 5—Rachmaninoff . Reflets dans l'eau—Debussy. Polonaise in A, Op. 41, No. 1—Chopin. Movement perpetuel No. 1 (1918)—Poulenc.
Mr. Waine's choice showed the piano in all its moods, from the fiery nature of the last movement of Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata to the meditative, impressionist "Reflets dans l'eau". Mr. Waine is to be thanked for the excellence of the programme and a special word of thanks should go to Mrs. Dronfield for making this fine instrument available to the School.
THE SCHOOL CONCERT A concert by a school for the school can hardly expect to reach professional standard; and many people who find they can get better music out of a gramophone ask why we should go to so much trouble for an evening's entertainment. We do so because music is more than an arrangement of noises which can be mechanically reproduced : it is an art which expresses the best feelings of living people. To see the violinists in the orchestra bowing their violins industriously in a corporate effort to express an idea of Mozart's is to get an impression of the human importance of music which a record can never give. It is right that our musicians should spend so much time preparing their music for the rest of us because their work concerns us all : it is refreshing to be dragged from our gramophones to hear real people playing live music. "It was an awful lot of Mozart, but I think it was the best ever" was a comment I heard twice after the concert given on 10th March in Big Hall as a tribute to the memory of Mozart, whose bicentenary is being celebrated this year. Though it comprised solely the works 27
