Evening star., 1943-08-15
Events in Music

lH6 IIllTQ, anu W1ldJ has pIofeu
to be the most successful, season of
C, c. Cappel's Starlight Chamber
Music Series of concerts in Meridian
Hill Park will come to close
Wednesday night with the second
appearance in Washington of the
Horace Britt String Ensemble. This
organization was formerly called the
Britt String SeXtet." At the sug-
gestion of Elizabeth Sprague Cool
idge, however Mr.. Britt changed the
name to the Britt String En-
semble," thus making it possible to
give entire programssof string quln-
tets as we'll as of sextets.
For Wednesdays concert Mr.. Britt
has chosen program of string quin-
tets: The quintet of Brahms, opus
Ill; the G minor quintet of Mozart,
K-516 and a quintet by the noted
Czech composer, Bohuslav Martinu.
This work was published in 1880 in
Paris, the first performance being
given in Prague and is dedicated to
Mrs. Coolidge. 1t was performed for
the first time in America in 1884 at
the Coolidge Festival in Pittsfleld,
Mass.
There is a newcomer to the Britt
String Ensemble in the person Of
Viola Wasterlain, who now occupies
the first violinist's chair. In recent
tours throughout the United States,
Miss Wasterlain has received rec
ognition and acclaim from the press
and her audiences for her musician
ship, keen understanding and un-
usual poetic endowment, coupled
with her convincing style and ad-
mirable technique. Although of
Spanish and Belgian descent, Miss
Wasterlain is American by birth.
Horace Britt, founder and leader
of the ensemble, is as well known
to 'cellists as Fritz Kreisler is to
violinists. His valuable contribu-
ton to the art of chamber music has
long been appreciated in the
Americas and before the war in
Europe. The other artists of this
inter esting ensemble are Edwin
Ideler, violinist; Conrad Held and
Gerald Kunz, violinists. These
Britt for many years.
The Navy School of Music Band
and Chorus, 1t. u. g. James M.
Thurmond, director, will give con-
cert at the Sylvan Theater on
Sunday, August %, at $50 pm.
This is the third public performance
given by the organization this year,
the fall and spring concerts taking
place in Constitution Hall
The band consists of 80 members
trained in the Navy school for duty
on the warships or at naval stations.
Many of the musicians, who enter
the school directly from civilian
life, are graduates with degrees from
university music schools or musical
conservatories or have been prom
inently before the public in bands
of their own or as soloists The 65-
voice chorus has been developed at
the school under 1t. Thurmond's
direction.
Among the music programmed for
next Sundays concert will be a
medley of service songs, "Semper
Paratus," "Caisson Song" Marine
Hymn" and Anchors Aweigh" and
a medley of Navy songs, Navy Blue
and Gold" "All Hands on Deck" and
Navy Victory March" arranged
for band and chorus by Musician
First Class George Thaddeus
Jones. An arrangement of Who"
from Kern's sunny" and De Bose's
''Song OF the Seabees." by Brindley
Bethel, musician first class will be
feature of the program.
The orchestral ensemble at the
National Gallery of Art, under the
direction of Richard Horner Bales,
will give a first Washington per-
formance of Victor Youngs "A
Fragment" Other selections on the
ems "Prometheus," Handel's Sara
bande and Bourree," C. P. E. Bach's
"Sinfonia No. 3 in C Major"
Gluck's Ballet Suite Gould's
"Pavan," Brahms Hungarian Dance
No. l." Polka ka-Furiant-the Come
dians," from Smetanas "Bartered
Bride" and Strauss Wiener Blut."
Three sonatas for violin and
piano: That of Villa -Lobos, Beeth-
ovens "Op. IL, No. 3" and Brahms
"a Major" will constitute the pro-
gram of the Joint recital by Edith
Eskridge Mast. violinist. and Cath
crime Tinsman Speh, pianist, at the
Phillips Gallery this afternoon at 5
pm. Miss Speh is a graduate of
the Yale School of Music. where
she studied with H. Stanley Knight.
She has been twice soloist with
New Haven Symphony and also
with the Corning and Mansfield
Symphony Orchestras. At present
she is a resident of Washington.
Miss Mast attended Eastman
School of Music in Rochester. had
a scholarship at the Dalcroz School
in New York and studied with
Hans Letz and Eduard Dethier.
BY special invitation the WASH
ington Civic Orchestra, DR.. Kurt