Two items to-day; first a Stravinsky lollipop: the first British performance of his
Elegy for J.F.K. dates from 1964. (The initials J.F.K. are those of a Northern American politician.) The work is scored for baritone and three clarinets; the name of the singer in this performance is not recorded - could he have been Peter Pears? Because the work was new and considered difficult it was sung twice over, without a break for applause.
The second item is Schönberg's
Six Pieces for Male Chorus opus 35 composed in 1929 and 1930. Again this was their first British performance. At the time - the mid sixties - the B.B.C. was very assiduously filling all the Schönberg gaps, and I still remember with gratitude my first hearing of his
Pelléas and Mélisande. The singers were members of the John Alldis Choir,
and for some unstated reason they omitted the fifth song of Schönberg's six. A year or so later I managed to hear it; its name is "
Landesknechte," meaning farm-boys or agricultural labourers, and there certainly are a lot of animal noises to be heard.