WILLIAM PRIMROSE (Solo Violin)
THE WIRELESS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, conducted by G. O'CONNOR-MORRIS
WHEN Wagner was about twenty-six he visited London on his way from Riga to
Paris, and had a very rough voyage.
The next year lie started work on his Opera, The Flying Dutchman, and the Overture to this work, which has been described as the finest storm music in existence, owes a good deal of its vividness to Wagner's stormy voyage of the year before.
The story of the Dutchman is more or less traditional : it can be traced back to at. least the sixteenth century. A Dutch sailor swears he will sail round the Cape, in the teeth of gales, even though he should sail till Doomsday. The Devil takes him at his word, and he is condemned to sail until (in Wagner's version) he finds a woman willing to share his fate. After many years, lie finds such a self-sacrificing woman, but wishing, in his love for her, to save her from a doom such as his, he leaves her. She, however, throws herself into the water to join him; the spell is broken by her renunciation, and they find rest together.
The Overture is practically an epitome of the opera. A dominating figure is that of the Curse, heard in a strenuous call on the Brass against a quivering, stormy background of Strings. There is a contrasting, prayer-like tune, and also a gay sailor-song, These are all repeated with increasing force towards the end.