Andre Navarra (cello)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
(Leader, Paul Beard)
Conducted by Rafael Kubelik
(Rafael Kubelik broadcasts by permission of Harold Holt, Ltd.)
Les Petits Riens was a ballet produced by Noverre (whom Garrick called ' the Shakespeare of the dance ') during Mozart's stay in Paris in 1778. The title had a curious appropriateness, since Mozart received nothing for his music! The score, moreover, was lost for some years: it was found in 1872, in the library of the Opera.
After reading through the score of Dvorak's Cello Concerto, Brahms exclaimed: Why on earth didn't I know that one could write a violoncello concerto like this? If I had only known, I would have written one long ago! ' Certainly the problems confronting a composer in this exacting form-problems largely of balance and construction-were solved by Dvorak with a sureness and an ease that few have been able to rival. The whole work is masterly and attractive, made up as it is of spontaneous melody, lively rhythms, and scope for virtuosity. It was written in 1894-5, at the end of Dvorak's stay in America. But it was London that had the honour of hearing it for the first time, at Queen's Hall in March 1896, when it was conducted by the composer.
Beethoven's Seventh Symphony has an extended introduction which, as it proceeds, hints at the dancing rhythm of the main part of the movement. A persistent rhythm also characterises the Allegretto, the second movement, though here the mood is elegiac, if not tragic. The captivating Scherzo has a trio that is said to be based on an Austrian pilgrims' hymn; and peremptory chords announce the coming of the turbulent finale.
Harold Rutland