(Leader, J. Mouland Begbie )
Conductor, Ian Whyte
Balakirev, besides guiding and inspiring the Russian nationalist musicians (including Mussorgsky, Borodin, and Rimsky-Korsakov), was an important composer in his own right. His Symphony in C was produced in 1898. It opens with an introduction marked Largo based on the main theme of the Allegro vivo that follows. The Scherzo, in A minor, is succeeded by an Andante in D flat in which a solo clarinet has an appealing melody accompanied by harp and strings. The finale, Allegro moderato, contains several folk tunes, one of which Balakirev heard sung by a blind beggar while he was travelling on the Finnish railway. Harold Rutland