Leader, Alfred Barker
Conducted by CRAWFORD McNAIR
'Danse macabre'
Saint-Saens's 'Danse macabre' describes a scene in a graveyard at night; the clock strikes and Death appears, knocks on the graves, and starts tuning his fiddle. In answer to his summons, several skeletons appear and; dance wildly to ;Death's fiddling. Presently the cock crows, the dance ceases, and all disappear as day breaks.
Henry Litolff (181 8-1 891) was the son of a French soldier who came to England from the Peninsula as a prisoner of war, and married an English lady. He first appeared in public at the age of twelve as a child prodigy pianist, and then for a number of years travelled extensively as a concert pianist. Eventually, he settled in Paris and devoted himself largely to composition, producing several operas, a good deal of symphonic music, and many pianoforte pieces, some of which are still played.