From the ARCHIVE

FROM THE STRAD NOVEMBER 1940 VOL 51, NO.607

The outlook for musicians in London is worse than it has ever before been. Already many of them are regretting the happy days of last winter when the blackout was the chief of the difficulties to be faced. The situation is unique in that it appears to be without issue. While our hours of darkness are filled with air activity, concerts are pretty well out of the question. It would no doubt be possible to organise afternoon shows, but presumably a good proportion of those who have the leisure to attend at such hours will by now have taken themselves off' to quieter parts. There remains the week-end, but so far very little has been done to make use of this.

The suggestion was made that the musicians who temporarily find themselves disengaged should be employed to entertain people taking refuge in the shelters, and an organisation calling itself “Mobile Concert Artists” has already been started to exploit this idea. While wishing them every success, we fear that there are many difficulties to be overcome. In the first place, few shelters are suitable for the performance of music, while even if they were, they are, of course, open to the public, and no charge could be made for admission. It is difficult to see how a concert could be given unless an overwhelming majority of the shelters desired it, and even in our most “arty” districts this could only be achieved by reserving special compartments for music lovers.

One result of the air raids has been to force many who had lost the habit of listening in, owing to the B.B.C.’s wartime policy, to turn once again to the radio for their musical entertaining. Complaints are still being made by the public of the infrequency of good programmes, and while the B.B.C. indignantly protest, the fact that they employed no less an authority than Sir Adrian Boult to reprimand an offender in the public press shows they are seriously concerned. The matter is easily settled, however. Reference to the current issue of the Radio Times shows that in the hours which are available for listening by the ordinary citizen, a total of some 41 hours, we find a total of four hours devoted to orchestral, one and a quarter to chamber music, and half-an- hour to piano music. Is this a reasonable proportion? We leave our readers to decide, bearing in mind the fact that the intelligent music lover has his personal tastes and does not wish to listen to all the good music broadcast.

TUCKER DENSLEY