Jennifer Vyvyan (soprano)
Cyril Smith (piano)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
(Leader, David Wise)
Conducted by Basil Cameron
From the Royal Albert Hall, London

During the present century Elgar, Vaughan Williams , Ireland, and Walton have all found musical inspiration in what the poet William Dunbar described as ' the flower of cities all.' John Ireland, like Elgar, presents London in overture form, but his vision of the great city is less cocksure than that of his Edwardian predecessor. The opening of his overture reminds us that nothing is more unfriendly than a city in its solitary hours of darkness, but with the merry bustle of daylight these fears are forgotten as we hear the bus conductor's cheery cockney cry of '-dilly. Piccadilly' which echoes in the main theme.
Dukas' 'Sorcerer's Apprentice' is based on a ballad by Goethe of which the moral - 'a little learning is a dangerous thing' - is only too evident. The apprentice has learned a few useful spells, intending to employ them during his master's absence. The opportunity occurs, and soon the lazy apprentice is only too successful in bewitching a broom to draw water, and the magician's cave becomes flooded. The counter-spell is forgotten, and so the frightened apprentice cleaves the broom in half, only to discover that there are now two water-carriers instead of one. At the climax of terror and confusion the magician returns, incants the counter-spell and restores order.

Each of us places his own interpretation on the 'Don Juan' legend. Strauss, in his symphonic poem, follows the poet Lenau, who conceives the Don as an idealist rather than as a profligate, always in search of perfection in womanhood. Thus, though Juan is ever driven forward towards conquest, it is clear that disillusion will follow even at the moment of possession. Strauss translates this idea into music by the use of rondo-form, which expresses, as can no other artistic means, the constant pursuit of the ideal, followed by its equally constant frustration.