(leader, Laurance Turner): conductor, Malcolm Sargent. Henry Hoist (violin). Fifth broadcast from the series organised by the Halle Society in collaboration with the BBC.
From the Opera House, Manchester
The Fantasy-Overture 'Romeo and Juliet' is one of Tchaikovsky's finest tone poems. It was written in the early eighteen seventies at a period when the composer was in close touch with the leaders of the Russian 'nationalist' group, particularly Balakirev, who suggested the subject to Tchaikovsky. One of the high lights of the work is the middle section, which is based on that exquisite love-theme first heard on the cor anglaisâone of the most beautiful melodies that Tchaikovsky ever conceived.
