Music’s appeal, so far as the size of audiences goes, is sometimes mystifying. The Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra have played British music to many empty seats in Leeds Town Hall lately. Last night at St. Chad’s Church, Far Headingley, was hardly big enough for the numbers who were drawn by a…
Letter from E. L. Roberts
Sir, – When Mr. Alan Bennett refers to British music as a pill which must be coated with sugar to make it tolerable, he is convicted out of his own mouth, for surely it is only natural that medicine should not be liked in too large does. No one, as…
“IN GOOD KING CHARLES’S GOLDEN DAYS”
“A TRUE history that never happened” is how the author (George Bernard Shaw) described this comedy. The year is 1680, in the library of Isaac Newton’s house in Cambridge, and the action illustrates what might have happened if Charles II had called upon the philospoher Newton, at the same time…
Letter from Walter Hartley
Sir, – Mr. Bennett’s letter supporting your critic’s remarks on the attendance at the Y.S.O. Concert impels me to offer the suggestion that we are not likely to secure support for contemporary English music by means of reports and comments which may be offensive to those who have yet to…
‘Tom Jones’ at Temple Newsam
Fine singing by the principlas and chorus marked the opening performances on Saturday of Temple Newsam’s second open-air Festival production , “Tom Jones.” The production is the first combined effort of the British Legion Players (Leeds Central branch) and the Hunslet Choral and Operatic Societies. Principals whose singing and clear…
Festival Concert
Though the Festival concerts being given by the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra in Leeds Town Hall are carefully described as concerts of British music, and though that title has been given to some correspondence in “The Yorkshire Post,” it has now been assumed that the words ‘British Music” are synonymous with…
Rain hits Leeds “Tom Jones”
The afternoon rain in Leeds on Saturday afternoon prevented the strings and tympani from playing in the first open-air performance of Tom Jones. But the audience stayed and the players sang on to the accompaniment of woodwind and brass. Conditons were more suitable in the evening and the performance was…
Letter from Alan Bennett
Sir, – When Mr E. L. Roberts refers to large doses of British music he seems to forget that these eight concerts are but a fraction of the number of concerts throughout the year. Rarely does he have such a large and pleasing pill as this to swallow; yet he…
Letter from G. Shaw
Sir, – In reply to your music critic’s words regarding the lack of public support for the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra’s concerts of British music, I feel he is deliberately closing his eyes to the fact that the public have given this stuff its hearing, have weighed it in the balance…
Letter from L.R.A.M.
Sir, – I was surprised on reading Michael Colbert’s article on “Music in Yorkshire” in last Saturday’s issue, to find that the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra – in his opinion – had been let down so badly by various authorities, as well as the musical public of the North. I am…