E LISTENER, 26 SEPTEMBER, 1946. Vol. XXXVI. No. 924. PRICE THREEPEN-

P~~blished every Thrtrsday by The British Broadcasting Corporation

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The Third Programme (see Supplement, pp. i-iv)

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The Listener Published every Thursday by The British Broadcasting Corporation

Vol. XXXVI No. 924 Thursday 26 September, 1946 RBOISTBRBD AS A NEWSPAPER AT THE G,P.O.

CONTENTS i

Strategy and Oil in the Middle East (Elizabeth Monroe) 397 . . . . . . Swiis Architecture in London (John Summerson) 412

THE WORLD TODAY : The 'Vyorld Food Plan (Sir John Boyd Orr) ... ' We Must Burn No Boats ' (Harold Nicolson) ...

... U.S. Press and the Libel Law (Alistair Cooke) Should Electricity Lie Nationalised? (Henry Owen)

THE LISTENER : A Third Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

... What They Are Saying (foreign broadcasts)

... DID YOU HEAR THAT? (microphone miscellany)

CORRESPONDENCE : . . . . . . 395 Letters from Sir Geoffrey Bracken, J. Conrad Fuller, W 1) M.

399 Lutyens, Enid Lakeman, M. A. Sandeman, H. W. Heckstall- . . . . . . 407 . . . . . . Smith, Norman E. Bedow, and Joan' Monypenny 411 . . . . . .

. . . . . . 410 GARDENING:

Winter Work in the Greenhouse (W. F. Bewley) . . . . . . . . . 413

400 LITERATURE: . . . . . . . . . . . . 400 The Friend of Shelley (Rosalie Glynn Grylls) . . . . . . . . . 414

The Listener's Bbok Chronicle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417 . . . . . . 401 CRITIC ON THE HEARTH:

MISCELLANEOUS : . . . . . . . . . . . . Broadcast Drama (Philip Hope-Wallace) 420 Collecting Relics of Old London (Robin Green) . . . . . . . . . 403 The Spoken Word (Martin Armstrong) . . . . . . . . . . . . 420 Watching Cricket (Michael Mever) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405 Broadcast Music (F. Bonavia) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420

POEM : MUSIC : Harvest (Francis King) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406 Italian Madrigals (Edward J. Dent) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NEWS DIARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408 RECIPES FOR m e HOUSEWIFE 423

FILM GUIDE (E. Arnot Robertson) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410 CRQSSWORD'NO..~~~ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423 ,

Third Programme Supplement ' ... i-iv

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, . The world Food 'plan By S I R J O H N B O Y D O R R

I A M going to kak about the recent F.A.O. Conference at the pre-war picture had been ilistorted by the war, and it soon Copenhagen. The main business there was proposals for the became evident that the world food shortage was worse than was establishment of a World Food Board. But perhaps I had commonly thought. At that time many people thought the food better explaid first what F.A.O. is. I t is the shorthand name crisis would end with this year's harvest I t was referred to as

of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, ' a ninety day crisis ', bur the survey showed that the food position which was established at Quebec about ten months ago. Its aims in 1947 was likely to be as bad as it was in 1946. F.A.O. there- may be stated, briefly as: food on a health standard for all the fore advised governments tha1:the criiis was so great and would people of the world, a& prosperity and stability for thg gree basic continue so long that the temporary organisations could not cope industries-agriculture, fisheries and forestry. with it. As a first step to the action needed, F.A.O. invited the

Now although F.A.O. was given these great objectives, it was temporary organisations and the twenty-two governments which not given either the funds or the executive authority to take could give the greatest help in dealing with the crisis, to send concrete measures to attain them. But it can advise governments delegates to a meeting in Washington in May of this year, there to take collective action, and it was from advice given to govern- to consider what should be done. ments in the spring of this year that the main business of the. That meeting was a great success. It unanimously approved of Copenhagen Conference arose. This is how it happened. When the measures to be taken to utilise the 1946 harvest to the best F.A.O. began work there were three temporary organisations deal- advantage and also to make the 1947 harvest the biggest ifi history. ing with the post-war food problems. There was UNRRA, the Then, to enable the nations to co-operate in-these measures, if Combined Food Board and the European Food Committee, and set up a temporary World Food Council. That Council is now it was thought that these three organisations which had been functioning at F.A.O. headquarters in Washington. Having dealt created during the war would be able to bring the production so expeditiously with the immediate crigs, the meeting decided and distribution of food up to something like the pre-war level, that the nations should go straight ahead ,and tackle the longer and that would be the starting point for F.A.O. So its first jab term problems of food and agriculture. .S6 'the Directur-General was to make a survey of the pre-war or normal world food of F.A.O. was requested to e x a w e these and submit pro- position. posals for dealing with thenf to the next, annual Conference-that

When that was done, it was necessary to find out how far is the Conference which met at Copenhagen in the first fortright a - . ,

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What They Are Saying The Listener .o..s f rom .. ,.s. .reign b r o a h a s t s

~ 1 1 communications should be addressed to the Editor of THE LISTENER, IMMEDIATE FRENCH REACTION to Mr. Chu~chill'~ speech in Ziirich was Broadcasting mainly reprints House, of broadcast London, taks,. W.1. The original articles contributions in THE LISTENER are not ,nvited, being extremely critical. The French commentator Henri Benazet stated in a '

and the B.B.C. cannot accept responsibility for unsolidted manuscript broadcast on Septembei 20: matter, whether literary or musical, which is submitted for its consideration. ' Let France forget the past and form a partnership with Germany ', Articles in THE LISTENER do not necessarily represent the views the is what he said in short In truth, he was lucky to be speaking before B.B.C., nor do the repmductlons of talks necessarily comespond verbatim a neutral in Ziirich. I t is better not to to imagine the . with the broadcast script. Yearly Subscription rates (including postage): inland, f 1; Overseas, 17.3. 6d. Shorter periods pro rata. Postage for single which such a spMch have received in France' ' ' ' Once * copies of this issue.: Inland, l4d.; Overseas, ~ d . Subs&ptions should be - We have paid our sincere due to the churchill of yesterday, we can and sent to the B.B.C. Publication Offices, Scarle Road, Wembley, Middlesex, must emphasise the strange aberration of the Churchill of today. . . .

or any newsagent Every healthy element in our people rejects with horror your advice. . . . Churchill wants to oppose us to' Soviet Russia. A French-German bloc seems to him an excellent method, a European bastion defending his bzloved England. Nothing doing! .This does not mean that Frenchmen are embracing the cause of Moscow, but they refuse to be Continental

A Third Choice powers on the international chessboard for the benefit of-others. They are not systematically hostile to a United States of Europe, far from it, but they insist that this body should enjoy complete independence and not be manoeuvred eitber by the Kremlin or the Foreign Office!

T H I S Sunday the Third be On the air for Moscow, in a broadcast in Rumanian on the same day, contrasted the first time. hnumerable !ste?ers will be curious to Mr. Churchill's speech with Mr. Wallace's speech, which was ' received know how the programme 1s being planned and what with approval by a2onsiderable part of the U.S. people': special characteristics are to distinguish i t from the two While Wallace desires the of the phanlom of a firm

existing services of the B.B.C. within these islands. TO answer policy towards Russia, Churchill's speech has created the impression some of their pestions and to assist them in their appraisal of the that he desires the creation of a French-German alliance which could new listening fare which is now open to them, we are be used by Britain and the U.S.A. to ser up a strong bloc that could

be opposed to the Soviet Union. Churchill's new anti-Soviet plan con- ' with this week's issue of THE LISTENER a four-page supplement, sists of forming a United Stges of Europe. . . . The true content of which readers may care to keep by them for easy reference. I n this his speech is an urge to forget all the crimes of the German imperialists supplement those responsible for the programme set out their aims and to form an understanding with them. This is a plan which aims and intentions; brief of important broadcasts in the at anothex war, against the Soviet 'Union and the other progressive

first few months are also given. I t will a t once be seen that both - countries'

in form in presentation the new programme will, as sir William f olish broadcasts were likewise critical. His attitude was. that of Anglo-Saxon big business', which was 'trying to set up a strong Haley says¶ break new ground in radio' As a public the

reactionary bloc which could offer a sufficient counterbalance to the B.B.C. must feel ' that i t is covering the whole range of its pos- rising tide of democracy in E ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ . G~~~~~ would be the nucleus of sibilities, that it is providing for all classes of its listeners, and that a bloc ~h~ Budapest radio, on the other hand, the i t is, among its other functions, ~fesent ing the great classical Buiigarian paper Zgazsag, on September 20,%eScomed Mr. Churchill's repertoire in music and drama, and-so far as they are broadcast- speech:

.. a b l e i n literature and the other arts '. With the coming of the By this speech, Churchill, champion of the struggle for the freedom Third Programme there is the prospect that a gap in the existing of Europe, has now joined the ranks of those who fight to create lasting p0iilsion caii be filled. Ll!so, and a!mast incideata!ly as it \%rere, peace in Europe. . . . Those preoccupied with the ideal of a United States the ~ r i t i ~ h . listener will have from now on a wider choice of of Europe must, however, always bear in mind that such a movement

should never degenerate into a Power bloc directed against either the programme than asy other in Europe. Soviet Union or the U.S.A.

The Third Programme's field will be, in the broadest sense, Domestic issnes inside ~ ~ ~ ~ i ~ , FranLe and G~~~~~~ provided ' cultural '-not a ~ o r d which trips very smoothly on an English, interesting material for commentators in these countries. On the 20th as compared with a Teutonic, tongue; i t is curious to reflect that Moscow radio devoted much .space to a Soviet decree on measures to the home of the world's finest lyric poetry, and of pre-errmefit end infractions of the regulations for coilective iarm co-operatives; and achievement in science, philosophy and the arts, has always lacked on the following day Moscow radio broadcast a speech by Comrade a generic expression fox' the ' things of the mind ' capable of making Zhdanov in Leqingrad on ' the ideological shortcomings of senior its way in ordinary speech. Howeyer, the Third Programme's sphere members of the staff ' of certain Lenirtgrad magazines and criticising

. is clear enough. So, also, is the sort of listener that it is expected to writers for admiring ' : appeal to. I t is being planned, says the Head of the programme, The bourgeois world dislikes our successes, both inside our country

for the alert and receptive listener, the listener who is willing and in the international akena. . . . Imperialists are afraid of Socialism and of our socialist country, which is an example to all progressive

first of afl to make an effort in selection and then to meet the mankind. . . . The task of Soviet literature is not only to parry their performer half-way by giving his whole attention to what is being slanderous and base attacks on our Soviet culture and hit back, but broadcast '. also boldly to attack bourgeois culture which is in a state of miasma

~~~~t stress is laid on the promise that the programme will and disintegration. I t does not really matter how beautiful is the out-

contain experiments-and all experiments, listeners will rea~se, side of the work of fashionable contemporary bourgeois Western European and QS: writers and film and theatrical producers-they

involve the risk of an occasional misfire. That is the inevitable price cannot save and raise the standards of their bourgeois culture, because of any deliberate departure from a safe and steady competence. it is based on a rotten foundation. . . . We, the representatives of T o receive the successes with their meed of satisfaction and the progressive Soviet culture, Soviet patriots, cannot really debase our- occasional failure undue concern is the best support he selves to the point of admiring bourgeois culture and its disciples. Our

literature, which reflects a State order of much higher standards than listening public can give to those who a:e to run the programme. that in any bourgeois country and a culture greater than that In a very real sense the quality of a country's radio progran:mes of the bourgeois countries, has the right to instruct the others in the directly reflects tolerance at the listening end-a breadth of sym- new public morality. Where can you find such a nation and such a pathy, a readiness to try new things. T!:; Third Programme will country as we have? . . . It is not for us to bow low to everything be dependent on these qualities among its 3Edience if foreign or to take UP a D ~ S S ~ V ~ and defensive position* . . . We must see

that our literature helps the Party and the people to educate the young i t is to take the place in our national life which, in the c m s e of generation in the spirit of absolute devotion to the soviet regime and the years, will rightly belong to it. service to the interests of the people.

Supplement to THE LISTENER, September 26,1946 ~ h e s e pages may be detached for reference

T H E T H I R D P R O G R A M M E

Breaking \ New Ground in Radio By S I R WILLIAM H A L E Y ,

ITH the opening of the Third Programme the pattern of the B.B.C.'s post-war broadcasting for listeners in the United Kingdom will be complete. Within that pattern there will, we hope, be many advances and

ovements. Each of the three separate services must continually to experiment, to innovate, and to raise general broadcasting

dards in its particular field. But the overall pattern itself should r a considerable period remain set. The complications of radio

ineering, the difficulties over wavelengths, and indeed the con- e of listeners all demand a settled system of prbgrammes, as it is well-conceived and adequate. matter of adequacy is important. There are many con-

tions of the functions of broadcasting, some of them narrowly ted. But a public service such as the B.B.C. has to feel that it

covering the whole range of its possibilities, that it is providing all classes of its listeners, and that it is, among its other func-

ns presenting the great classical repertoire in music and drama, so far as they are broadcastable-in literature and the other

e two services already existing, the regional- ihe Light Programme, is not possible. Quite great pressure upon their time, the basic broadcasti g with its news bulletins and

desire in i e course of the limited peak ening to give some service to every possible

Director-General of the B.B.C. ,

taste, restrict to a hampering extent the possibility of devoting the necessary time to the full and frequent performance of great works in their entirety or to the development of those highest forms of music and drama which while they have a major importance have, as yet, only a minority audience. The range of the B.B.C. Home Service and the Light Programme is admitted by all who have studied broadcasting programmes throughout the world to be out- standing. But in view of all this, it is not enough. I

The Third Programme will have no fixed points. I t will devote to the great works the time they require. I t will seek every evening to do something. that is culturally satisfying and significant. I t will devote occasional series of evenings to some related masterpieces, a Shakespeare historical cycle, all the Beethoven quartets, or a series of Mozart operas. I t will, so far as circumstances permit, be international. Concerts, operas, plays will be taken from abroad as Iandline conditions improve. Its talks will include contri'outions from the great European thinkers. Its whole content will be directed to an audience that is not of one class but that is perceptive and intelligent.

In declaring these standards the B.B.C. realises i t is aiming high. I t may be giving hostagw unto fortune. But it is determined to break this new ground. And it believes that the outcome will prove that of all post-war developments in .the field of sound broadcasting the Third Programme has the greatest value both to the individual and to the community as a whole.

'The Aims of %the Programme By G E 0 RG E R. B A R N E S, Head of the Third Programme

For whom, then, is this Third Programme, and what is its policy? To begin with, I would say that it is for the alert and receptive listener, the listener who is willing first of all to make an effort in selection and then to meet the performer half-way by giving his whole attention to what is being broadcast. The programme is not planned for continuous listening night after night, week in week out. Every night there will be a principal item of considerable length demanding sustained attention. But equally ev'ry night something in addition to the chief item will be provided fdr people of differing tastes who wish to hear ideas discussed or to share zsthetic experience. On an evening when 'Tristan and Isolde' is performed in full, those who do not enjoy opera or Wagner or who are tone-deaf will be offered speech programmes in the intervals which willain no way relate to the opera. The musician, on the other hand, can rely on at least two recitals on the evening when 'Man and Superman' is performed in full.

We shall make no effort to appeal to everyone all the time, nor shall we try to be all things to all men. On one issue, however, which crops up whenever broadcasting, and particularly British broadcasting, is dis- cussed, our intention is clear. There are those who dislike being 'talked at ', who demand ' performance ' and nothing else, who find popular exposition.often copdescending and, often ibitating-highbrows is the

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name given to ,them by their opponents. On the other side are those of providing drama while you read or music while you work, but the who want things to beexplained, believing that the generally cultivated second and third performances which we shall provide of our own person no longer exists; who have, like horses, to be led to water or, successes and those on other home and overseas programmes both past like Prom. audiences, want their programmes to have notes. Compro- and present, will enable the busy person to listen, for instance, to an act

. mise on this issue antagonises all. We shall therefore provide the of ' Tristan' or of 'Man and Superman ' in the certainty that he can programme and not the notes. There will be few ' hearing aids ' for hear the rest of the work on another evening; and at the same time will listeners to the Third Programme. We hope that our approach will be give the actor, the specialist and the amateur a copious satisfaction. at once sensitive and adult; that our audience will enjoy itself without Thus original writing for broadcasting will be freed both from the crutches and will satisfy its desire for knowledge without a primer. We tyranny of the stopwatch and the stigma of the ephemeral. New writers realise that in broadcasting the listener has the last word. . as well as those of established reputation will have their opportunity,

So much for the audience. The policy of the Third Programme may and the need to experiment will be subordinated only tb maintaining be as shortly stated: it is to set a high standard in its choice of broad- the classic standard of values. . casts of music, drama and speech, and to achieve the highest available An evening's programme instead of a large number of .short items level of performance. The sources on which broadcasting can draw each comparatively easy to time accurately will usually include a small

' must be widened and deepened to include much that is new to radio number of long items. Buffer periods will be needed, therefore, if. and much that has been cut off from us by seven years of war. If the programmes are to start punctually-a politeness which every broadcast present condition of communications in Europe permits, we shall give service owes to irs supporters-and if, as is axiomatic, every programme our listeners the chance to he% what is seminal and what is best abroad is to be completed and a suitable pause allowed before its successor and so restore international standards of performance. Without taking begins. These interludes will be filled with speech and also with music, sides in the dispute between those who think of radio as an art i n itself sometimes even with silence, a device too rarely used in radio today; and those who regard it merely as an extension of the stage and the but to plan them is not easy bince no one can know their length until platform, we can with the help of persons and institutions outside the they occur, or even that there will be an interval at all. After an act B.B.C. and indeed outside the country, test the validity of what British of ' Tristan ', for instance, the five minutes allowed for may be reduced broadcasting has done in the years of war. We will above all experiment. to one minute or expanded to fifteen. Interludes, we believe, should

T o carry out this policy we need not only the goodwill but the not demand a high degree of attention, and tlieir effect should above all active participation of creative minds. Unless playwrights and poets, be unhurried. In music it is simple to provide sound without meaning critics and writers, performers, producers and composers can see an and we shall experiment with improvisation-an art more common opportunity within the scope of the new programme, listeners will not fifty years ago than it is today, 'Dxcept among church organists. We find the stimulus they expect. On our side we start with two advantages. are inviting men of letters to devise for us the spoken interludes for In' the first place we start from scratch with a blank schedule: the a given week, and Mr. Desmohd MacCarthy has selefted those for our

' absence of news bulletins (a service which it is unnecessary for us to opening week, chiefly from the descriptions of places and of people in supply since news is available on one of the other programmes hourly Henry James' novels. These interludes will be read by the announcer between 6 p.m. and midnight) and of other fixed points enables us to on duty-Miss Marjorie Anderson, Mr. Pat Butler, Mr. Alvar Lidell or- broadcast plays, operas, etc., in full, to schedule work; of all kiqds from Mr. Christopher Pemberton. 'The Eve of St. Agnes ' to ' Man and Superman , from ' 'The Art We do not expect to satisfy the ambitious claims set out above, eithet of Fugue ' to ' Tristan', which have hitherto been considered too long at once or on every evening. The success of the programme depends, for broadcasting, and to allow a speaker time and scope 'to fold his as I have said, on the willingness of the listener to make bold choices legs and have out his talk '-subject only to his ability to hold the and to give them his full attention, and on the opportunity which the

.listener's attention. In the second place we can give more than pne 'Miter and performer can see in an experiment never,made before in performance of all major works. We shall e eat generously and often. broadcasting. On our side the limitations imposed by lack of-studios, For in a world where silence on the air is 8 allowed the space-filling telephone lines and building labour are considerable but should ease as requirements of broadcasting are most commonly met by dilution-by war recedes We hope that from September 29 there will be many ' background music '. Our. terms of reference deny -us the relaxation broadcasting occasions which vou cannot afford to miss. - ,

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- , -The: Programmes in Detail -

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Music B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra will perform on Saturdays; works of classical and contemporary composers will alternate from week to week.

Music will fill at least one-third of the programme, and since all of it On Thursdays works calling for a smaller orchestra will be given by a "s intended for the attentive and not as a background to work, to section of the B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra. Opera, when available, will.

reading or to washing up, the scope offered to the planner even in the be on Fridays. The pre-war practice of a public chamber concert in the first six months is vast and his prospect thrilling. From the first recital Concert Hall at Broadcasting House, which pleased many music-lovers, (Lucille Wallace playing Bach's Goldberg Variations) and the first will be revived on Mondays. On most days space will be found for

r orchestral concert on the opening day, all the works performed will a recital. be part of a long-term plan to give the finest available performances The opening month will be in the nature of an International Music. of music of every style and epoch with special emphasis on works of Festival. Foreign visitors will include Charles Munch and the Paris interest and beauty which are rarely heard in the concert hall or, Conservatoire Orchestra, Nikolai Malko, Elisabeth Schumann, Szigeti, hitherto, on the radio. A complete hearing of the mus& of the great and the Ondricek Quartet from Prague, while invitations have been sent masters in authoritative performances, will be balanced, oq one side, to distinguished executants from several other countries. The first by those works which were the sources of their inspiration and, on the orchestral concert, on September 29, will begin with a new Festival other, by the works of our own time. In such a scheme English music Overture by Benjamin Britten, specially written for the occasion, and has a special place. All the major dramatic works of Purcell will be Arthur Bliss will conduct his Music for Strings later in the same performed. The choral and keyboard music of the Elizabethan school will programme. The Saturday Evening Orchestral Concerts will start on be represented in our chamber concerts and recitals. The musk inspired October 5, when William Walton will conduct his symphony. Other by the Christian tradition will be heard both in a fortnightly anthology noteworthy events during October will be broadcasts of String Quartets called ' Music for Worship ' presented by Steuart Wilson and in a by Sibelius, Bloch, Janirek and Shostakovich, the First Violin Sonata weekly concert to which many church choirs will contribute. The songs of Bartok, and Purcell's great Ode ' Come ye sons of art away '. of Vaughan Williams, Warlock, Gurney and others will be heard in The instrumental music of the great masters will cover a reper- recitals which alternate with the lieder and song-cycles of the European toire similar-to the old ' Foundations of Music ' fin its time a music-hall tradition. joke like the fat stock prices) but not in such concentrated form. Thus

The main planb of the musical structure, will be symphony concerts the Mozart Piano Concertos will all be played by Dame Myra Hess at the best listening times; on Saturdays and on Thursdays. The full next spring in a series of concerts extending over six or eight weeks,

!6 S E P T E M B E R ' 1 9 4 6 T H E L I S T E N E R iii

Miss Nina Milkina will play the Mozart sonatas this autumn in a lasting a week or ten days, are already planned, one in January, of plays loZen short weekly recitals. The Beethoven violin and piano sonatas by Bernard Shaw and the other next summer of the historical plays of will be played by Messrs. Askenasa and Goldberg early next year Shakespeare from ' Richard I1 ' to ' Richard I11 '. Shorter plays, new, ' tnd the Chopin Mazurkas will be played by M. Smeterlin in Novem- recent and established, will be produced as often as resources permit; Jer. Bach's keyboard music is well represented in the first week by two performances, for instance, of Milton's ' Comus ' with the music he Goldberg Variations and an organ recital by Dr. Thalben-Ball; by Henry Lawes composed for the original performance exactly 300 :he ' Partitas' will be played by Mr. James Ching in the concerts years ago will be given next week. Once in six weeks an unfamiliar ~f Chamber Music; the orchestral arrangement of the Art of Fugue English or a foreign play which does not lend itself to complete radio n a Saturday Concert on October 27 which will be preceded in the performance will be the subject of a commentary, illustrated by scenes game week by the two-piano arrangement of the same work; and in performed in the studio. Racine's ' Phkdre ' and Goethe's ' Faust ' each lanuary Madama Renata Borgatti is visiting this country specially in with a short scene acted in the language of the original, and Marlowe's wder to play the ' Well-Tempered Clavier '-in a series of pro- ' Tamburlaine the Great ' are examples of plays which lend themselves yammes carefully arranged to show the extent and variety of the to this treatment. Finally the current productions of 'World Theatre '

forty-eight preludes and and those heard in the Home Service earlier this year will be repeaxed fugues. During the win- from recordings. ter the two series of The policy in regard to repeating Feature programmes is the same. works which represent Forthcoming prod~ctions which have been specially written for the most completely Beet- Third Programme include 'The Voyage o f Magellan ' by Laurie Lee, hoven's development as an adaptatipn of Melville: ' Moby Dick' by Henry Reed, a new an artist will be heard, MacNeice, The Careerist , while Stephen Potter has written 'How the pianoforte soilatas to Listen' to open the Programme on Sunday. Two experiments are and the string quartets. to be made. this autumn; Chaucer's ' Canterbury Tales ' are being

We shall attealpt in adapted for broadcasting by Stephen Potter with the help of Nevi11 time to schedule one Coghill, the Prologue being scheduled for October 4; and on October 15 performance of opera will be performed the first of a number of ' Imaginary Conversations ' every week, an aim either written for the occasion or adapted from a published work. actually realised in Otto- These will include new works by Herbert Re!d, V. S. Pritchett and ber when two complete George Orwell, Anatole France's ' La Muiron , the ' Phedrus ' or the performances of ' Tristan ' Symposium ' of Plato and C. V. Wedgwood's ' Dr. Evelyn at Windsor and Isolde', conducted Castle'. The success of all these dramatic productions depends, first, by Sir Thomas Beecham, on the willingness of authors to write for the radio, and now that the and the Glyndebourne Third Programme can guarantee a number of performances it is hoped production of Britten's that tWs natural shyness of so ephemeral a medium will disappear; nav opera 'The R ~ p e of secondly, on the co-operation with our 0x1 staff af actside predacers

with knowledge of radio; and lastly on the provision of studros already strained by the

Seorge R. Barnes, Head of the Third Pro- growing demand for dramatic productions, gramme which the scarcity of building materials and

labour continually threatens. Lucretia ', which has toured Great Britain tnd Holland since its first stage performance at Glyndebourne in July, will be given from :he -studio. There will be visits to the, 3mbridge Theatre for Rossini's 'Don The reading aloud of poetry provokes

Pasquale ', and to Covent Garden .for; differences of opinion which are seldom

Verdi's, ' Rigoleno ' and Purcell's ' Faw ; calmly expressed; it may be that the only

Queen . In December Ravel's ' L 'heu r~~ solution for programme planners is to make

:spagnale ' will come from Paris, -Aftef'- clear a resolute intention. That, at any rate,

Christmas we look forward to the possibility is the policy to be adopted by the Third

~f a complete performance of ' The Ring ' Programme. On at least three occasions

and to at least some of the operas of every week, on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, twenty-minute periods of poetry

Mozart. .The Winter Promenade Concerts now

icing planned for the Albert Hall will be Etienne Amyot, in charge of planning heard in part in the Third Programme, which will naturally expect to bring much of the traditional Promenade will be given at peak' season to its listeners in the summer. times. The readers will

A word about a special use of gramophone records may not be out be the best available. The of place. For those who are interested to compare the interpretations programme will be of different artisis in the same work, recourse will be had to the B.B.C.'s divided between the con- extensive gramophone library, and at suitably spaced intervals great temporary and the classi- artists, past and present, will be heard in works which invite an cal, between readings individuality of performance. with and without com-

ment, and between selec-

Drama and Features tions from a single poet, and from many poets.

The plans for radio drama provide for a new production of a full Longer Poems, classical length play every month. Three performances will be given, the first and contemporary, will - on Tuesday, the second on Wednesday and the third three weeks be broadcast monthly, later. The three plays this autumn are Shaw's ' Man and Superman ' in the first being Robert its entirety, the ' Agamemnon ' of Aeschylus, and Shakespeare's ' Troilus Frost's ' Masque of Rea- and Cressida '. A number of playwrights have already been invited to son', and the second write a new play for performance in 1947 and two producers outside the Keats' ' The Eve of St. iB.B.C., Tyrone Guthrie andwichel St. Denis, have each agreed to A g n e s '. Unpublished ~ ~ ~ l i ~ stokes, in charge ,,f presentaticn and birect one of fhese monthly productions~ Two festivals of drama, each . poetry will find its place. 1 8 publicity a

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iv T H E L I S T E N E R - 2 6 S E P T E M B E R 1 9 4

Talks affairs which are a trqditional part of the Home Service ddes ni divest the new programme of a responsibility for dealing with affair

The purpose of the radio talk is to communicate ideas and to stimulate and it will seek appropriate methods of doing so which will be con their circulation as well as to report experience and to describe what men plementary to those of the Home Service. In foreign affairs, fc and women thi& and feel. It is nor easy ro see at present where the instance, the objects and traditions of British foreign policy will t chief source of talks for the new programme will lie. Obviously critical appraised $0 that the events described and assessed in 'World Affairs talks on the arts are one source and currenr affairs are another, but talks can be seen against the background of history. Regular despatches fro, which depend on long series-and all fixed timings-are alien to our B.B.C. correspondents abroad, and, when events demand it, a lengthic purpose. We can afford to give time to a speaker in wh:ch he can develop examination of a particular situation in home or foreign affairs tha his argument at a length limited only by the listener's willingness and other programmes can give will also be broadcast. ability to follow him; we can experiment with the impromptu talk and . Single talks arranged in the first few weeks include Dean Inge o we can provide an audience if being alone in a studio is found inimical 'Man and Superman ', James Stephens on James Joyce, an impressio to this form of expression. Invitations have already been sent to a of the Bodleian by a Chinese librarian, Dr. Cyril Burt on Psycholog! number of distinguished European and American thinkers to suggest Desnlond MacCarthy on Growing Old, Trafalgar Day by the Ard a subject for talks of this kind We can repeat outstanding talks from bishop of Apamea (The Most Rev. David Mathew), Monsieur Sartl the past and recent talks in our own and other Services which demand on his play ' Vicious Circle ' and a reminiscence of Henry James ; a second hearing. We shall invite critics to notice on the air our own work by his secretary, Theodora Bosanquet. dramatic productions We shall certainly break out own rule against These are the main threads in the Third Programme patterr long series by devoting half an hour every Thursday to the criticism It is, necessarily, still incomplete. The place to be taken by ligt and appreciation of the Visual Ark, since painting, sculpture, and entertainment, for instance, is undecided, though it is probable th: architecture have been too long neglected in sound broadcasting. satirical revue, of the type seen at the Gate and Litrle Theatres befox

The appreciation of contemporary music and a series on Style and the war, will be the main contribution in this field. Writers in ch Interpretation seem to us the fittest subjects for music talks. Books genre are scarce; the Third Programme hopes to find recruits for i will be noticed each week and other talks on literature will include but some reliance at least will have to be put upon the wits and satiris1 studies of contemporary writers (Denis Johnston on Sean ,Q'Casey of days past. is the first, followed by Arthur Calder-Marshall on Graham,Greene Through the pattern, as it has already developed bn paper, certai and W. J. Turner on Christopher Isherwood) and V. S. Pritchett's consistent principles may be discerned. The Third Programme will t talks on the Russian Novelists, a short series, to be followed by international; it will experiment and it will repeat; above all it wi Dr. J. T. Sheppard on Greek Poetry. be flexible, believing that flexibility is the only framework whic

The absence of news bulletins and of the commentaries on current will ensure life and vigour to its particular purpose.

Some-Outstanding Broadcasts' in the First Six Week! MUSIC October 27. 1 Nadia Boulaneer

November I.{ Conducts the -~ad ia Boulanger Ensemble In tw October 7. Szigeti, Elisabeth Schumann and Gerald Moore programmes.

A programme of Bach, Bartbk and Schumann. Monday Evening Concert of Chamber Music. ctober 25. Michael Tippett

i First performance of his new quartet-The Zoria October I I The Rape of Lucretia Quartet.

First broadcast performance of Benjamin Britten's new November 6. N~~ Sacred plusic opera. Works by Sir Arnold Bax, Lennox Berkeley, Edmun,

October 12. The Damnation of Faust : Beriioz Rubbra, etc. Commissioned by the B.B.C. First of series of six programmes. B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham. Stiles-Allen, Arthur Carron, Harold Williams, November 8. Delius Festival ~. George Hancock and the B.B.C. Chorus. Saturday Even- - Royal Philharmonic Concert. Conductor : Sir Thoma ing Symphany Ceneert. Beecham.

October 14. The Ondricek Quartet Works by Dvoibk, Shostakovich and ~ a k t e k . In the Monday Evening Concert of Chamber Music.

October 15 Variations on a theme of Purcell : Benjamin Britten First broadcast performance. -Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor : Malcolm Sargent.

October 18. The Ondricek Quartet I A programme including the Quartet No. 2 in' D, Op. 35, by Novlk.

October 20. lsobel Baillie A programme of Handel and lvor Gurney Sengs.

October 24. Tristan and lsolde .. 28.1 Complete performance Trom the studio. Marjorie Lawrence and Arthur Carron. The B.B.C. Symphony Orchestca, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham.

FEATURES: DRAMA: TALKS October 8. James Joyce

Talk by James Stephens.

October 8 The Voyage of Magellan ., 9:1 A dramatic chronicle in verse by Laurie Lee with mud

by Brian Easedale. Frederick Valk as Magellan. . October 1; 1 The Masque of Reason by Robert Frost

First broadcast performance of a dramatic poem for fou voices which has not yet been published in this country

October 18. Scenes from Racine's Phedre ,, 2 I . 1 In the series International Drama: Comment and Action.

October 22. The Careerist ,, 23.1 A new Morality play for Radio by Louis MacNeice. ~

October 23. The Spear of Gold , 26.1 A new play in verse by L. A. G. Stron~. -

October 26. The Art of Fugue : Bach October 29. The Agamemnon of Aeschylus The B B.C. Symphony Orchestrg Conductor: Walter , 30.1 Translated by Louis MacNeice. With Lewis Goehr. Saturday Even~ng Symp #pry Concert. Ernest Milton, Margaret Rawlings and Frederick Valk.

October 27. Germani November 5. Atomic Energy @

Organ Recital. ,, 6.1 A Feature Proprammeby Nesta Pain. -