From Birmingham
THE BIRMINGHAM MILITARY BAND, conducted by W. A. CLARKE
THE plot of the Opera Euryanthe was made out of a thirteenth-century tale of knightly doings, full also of ghosts, fairies and such-like legendary folk. The work did not hold the stage; its libretto was too silly, even for those days. But the Overture found and retained a place on the concert platform. In it, Weber strikes the notes of chivalry and mystery. According to his characteristic plan, it contains fragments of leading airs from the Opera.
THE Finale actually grows, in the most exciting
, way, out of a mysterious whispered passage at the end of the Third Movement, the Scherzo. This passage gradually leads'into the blaze of the triumphal Finale, a psean that sustains the note of exultation from beginning to end, except for a moment when Beethoven brings in a few bars-a ghost, as it were-of the Scherzo.