In Commemoration of the Composer's Birth on December 17, 1770
THE STATION AUGMENTED ORCHESTRA, conducted by T. H. MORRISON
Overture, ' Leonora,' No. 3
First Movement from Sixth Symphony (The
Pastoral)
WHEN Beethoven brought out his Sixth
Symphony and gave it the name 'Pastoral' he was at, great pains to have it understood as (in his own words) ' more expression of sensation than painting.' But for all his warning there are places in the work where you get as frank realism as in any music that has been written in the hundred odd years that have followed it.
No doubt Beethoven's warning must be kept in mind for the greater part of the Symphony, while its mock storm, nightingales, and so on, can be taken for what they are worth.
The FIRST MOVEMENT is headed by a phrase which may be translated as ' Pleasant sensations awakened on arrival in the country.' This is really a normal symphonic Movement in the usual First Movement form, but also it seems to answer well to its suggestive description.
JOHN FOSTER (Baritone)
God's Might and Providence Sacrificial Song
The Praise of God
.May Song
Within the Grave in Darkness
ORCHESTRA
Allegretto from Eighth Symphony in F
Scherzo and Finale from Fifth Symphony in C
Minor and Major
WHEN Beethoven wrote this Symphony
W he had many worries, domestic and otherwise. Deafness was creeping upon him, and his health was not good. Yet the artist rises above the troubles of the man, and this music is among the gayest Beethoven ever wrote.
The SECOND MOVEMENT is a delightfully graceful, care-free piece, of which the direction at its head-Scherzando (' playful )-is an apt description.
A ' SCHERZO ' must have gaiety, but that m
A the Fifth Symphony has romance as well as humour. The piece falls into three Sections.
1. Note the mysterious opening (a tune on 'Cellos and Double Basses). Then comes a loud Horn-call tune. With those two scraps of tune the Composer keeps our minds occupied for some time. II. 'Cellos and Double Basses open again
-but very differently. Berlioz called this passage the gambols of an elephant. III. Much the same as I
Then comes a wonderful mystical passage
(Strings very soft, and Kettledrum taps), then a soft Violin tune, then a working-up of the excitement. until we dash into the Finale, a bold, martial Movement. Its course is interrupted fcr a moment by a ghostly return of a rhythmic fragment from the Scherzo, and then the March bursts forth again, and carries the Symphony on to a triumphant end.
JOHN FOSTER
Isolation
The Minstrel's Ghost Marmotte Longing
ORCHESTRA
Overture, 'Coriolanus'