Relayed from the Winter Gardens,
Bournemouth
(Picture on page 32S.)
(Xo. 7 of the Thirty-third Winter Series)
THE BOURNEMOUTH MUNICIPAL SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA (Fifty Performers), conducted by Sir DAN GODFREY
THE MASTERSINGERS, Wagner's one
Comedy, is for many people the best work he ever wrote.
The Prelude to Act in belongs to the tenderer moods of the work. It introduces the scene in which the poet-philosopher-cobbler. Hans Sachs , sits at his window, reading and meditating, in the glow of the sun of mid-summer morning, upon the life and strife of men.
The Apprentices' Dance comes in the last scene of the Opera, when the citizens are assembled in a meadow outside Nuremberg to hear the great song competition, the prize in which is the hand of the heroine.
The people's acclamation of their well-loved favourite, Sachs, brings the Opera to a close.
FRANCOIS COUPERIN , that great eighteenth-century Composer of Harpsichord music, was one of a dynasty of five generations of notable musicians. He himself wrote music in memory of his great contemporary Corelli, and another distinguished Frenchman of a later generation, Rave!, in turn paid his tribute to Couperin by writing a Suite of pieces having affinity of form with the older music, but of strikingly individual cast in harmony and feeling. The Suite was first written, ten years ago, for Piano, and a little later four of its six pieces were orchestrated (for Strings, Woodwind, two Horns, a Trumpet, and a Harp).
These are a Prelude. Forlana. Minuet, and Rigaudon. The Minuet is a familiar form to all listeners. The Forlana, originally an Italian dance, a favourite of the gondoliers of Venice, has here a quiet spirit in a lilting body. The Rigaudon (a Provencal dance with a peculiar leaping step) has a cheerful swing, and ends in high feather.
POOR Tchaikovsky had a crushing disappointment over this work. He wrote it specially for Nicholas Rubinstein (brother of the more famous Anton Rubinstein , and also a very-great player). Then, on Christmas Eve, 1874, he played it to the great man. who was very bitter about it. pronouncing it ' worthless ' and ' absolutely unplayable.'
So Tchaikovsky removed from the score his dedication to Rubinstein, who afterwards repented and played the Concerto in public ; and Tchaikovsky repented and rewrote it very considerably. So all ended well.
There are three Movements. The First, which is vigorous, has as its opening Tune (after the Introduction) one that the composer heard sung by blind beggars at a fair.
The Second Movement is short and contains a tune taken from a gay little French song.
The Last Movement is made out of three chief tunes, all suggesting Russian dances.