(Winter series)
Gladys Ripley (contralto)
Eric Harrison (piano)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
(Leader, Paul Beard )
Conducted by Basil Cameron (Continued in next column)
From the Royal Albert Hall, London Tickets, price Is. 6d. to 3s. 6d. may be obtained at the Royal Albert Hall or usual agents
Rachmaninov's brilliant Rhapsody, one of his later compositions, was first performed at Baltimore in 1934, with the composer as soloist and Stokowsky conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra. The work consists of twenty-four continuous variations on the Paganini theme, and an interesting point is that after a brief Introduction the first variation is heard before the statement of the theme. In the course of the work the Dies Irae plainchant is introduced. The glowing and romantic variation in D flat, which forms the emotional climax of the work and sounds so . characteristic of Rachmaninov, is merely an inversion of the Paganini theme, played more broadly and in the major.
Harold Rutland