(Continued)
ORCHESTRA
Overture, ' In the South'
Contrasts— The Gavotte, 1700-1900
IN THE SOUTH-ALASSIO is a musical record of impressions of Italy — more especially of ' a glorious afternoon in the Vale of Andora,' with snow-tipped mountains on the horizon, and the blue Mediterranean, and with thoughts of the strife and power of the old Roman civilization, suggested by the ruins at hand.
The tunes out of which In the South is constructed are all Elgar's own. One of them in the middle, a tune of pastoral feeling, has been spoken of as an Italian folk-time, but the Composer states that this is an error.
The Overture was first heard at the Covent Garden Elgar Festival of 1904.