Leader, Daniel Melsa
Conductor, ERIC FOGG
REGINALD PAUL (pianoforte)
Folk song and the life of the countryside-these are the dominant influences in the music of George Butterworth , who had composed but a slender store of works when, at the age of thirty-one, he was killed in the War.
The few pieces he left us contain music of singular winsomeness, imbued with the spirit of old melodies, and subtly conveying the mingled charm and sadness of nature.
His idyll, 'The Banks of Green
Willow', first performed in 1913, is scored for a small orchestra of wood-wind, horns, trombone, harp, and strings. It is built upon two folk tunes. The first, that which gives the work its title, is heard on the clarinet-a gentle, ambling melody that is worked up by the strings. ' Green Bushes', the other tune (in the minor key), is given out by the oboe.