Played by Edgar T. Cook
Relayed from Southwark Cathedral

The 'Siegfried Idyll' was written first for private performance, as a present to Wagner's wife. It belongs to the period when Siegfried, the third of the four big music dramas of the Ring was almost completed. Wagner and his wife were living at Triebschen, near Lucerne, and there, in 1869, their son Siegfried was born. It was that auspicious event which inspired this Idyll. Its composition and the rehearsals were kept a secret from Frau Wagner, and performed as a surprise to her outside the villa. Wagner himself conducted, and the faithful Hans Richter took the trumpet part. Scored for a comparatively small orchestra, the little piece is based on themes which are, with one exception, taken from the music-drama of Siegfried. The one exception is an old German Cradle Song which Wagner introduced with the happiest effect.
Widor succeeded Cesar Franck as Professor of the Organ at the Paris Conservatoire, and worthily upheld the fine tradition of French organ music which began a new lease of life with Franck's advent. But, although it is his organ music which is much better known in this country than any of the rest of his work, taking, as it docs, a real important place in the organist's repertoire, there is a good deal of symphonic and oven operatic music from his pen. At least one of his Symphonic poems has boon heard in London - A Walpurgis Night. Widor conducted it himself at a Philharmonic Concert hero in 1888. 1.

Sonata No. 3 Con moto maestoso ; Andante tranquillo - Mendelssohn
SYLVIA MEREDITH 'O tell of Jubal's Lyre' ('Joshua') - Handel
EDGAR T. COOK Siegfried Idyll - Wagner, arr. Lemare
SYLVIA MEREDITH 'O Men from the Fields' - Hughes
EDGAR T. COOK Ronde dos Princesses - Stravinsky, arr. Besly
Lauda Sion (Suite Latino) - Widor