(Section C)
Led by MARIE WILSON
Conducted by JOSEPH LEWIS
STUART ROBERTSON
(bass-baritone) The overture ' The Marriage of Camacho ', written at the age of sixteen, is a very charming work and is, in fact, the best part of the opera, which unfortunately suffers from a weak libretto based on an episode from ' Don Quixote '. When it was produced at Berlin it ran for one night only.
This is incidental music to the children's play, The Starlight Express, written by Algernon Blackwood and Violet Pearn, which was put on at the Kingsway Theatre during the war. Elgar has written very little incidental stage music, but for at least two reasons he took pleasure in providing music for this play-he made use of a real understanding of the young and a love of writing for and about them (consider only the ' Wand of Youth ' and ' Nursery ' Suites), and he sought relaxation from his war-inspired and patriotic compositions, which formed the major part of his work in the first years of the war.
Alexis Chabrier , born in 1841 (died
1894), is one of those few but distinguished composers who practically taught themselves. He studied law, but fortunately preferred music. His music is brilliant, witty, and full of colour, his ' Spanish Rhapsody ' affording a very famous example of all these qualities. He wrote operas, the most famous of them being Le rot malgre lui, which is still sometimes performed. He had a remarkable influence on the French composers who succeeded him, and he is considered to be one of the founders of modern French music.