(Eleventh Season)
To be given before an audience in the Concert Hall, Broadcasting House
British Music
Sophie Wyss (soprano)
Aubrey Brain (horn)
The BBC Orchestra (Section D)
Leader, Paul Beard
Conductor, Sir Adrian Boult
Our Hunting Fathers, A Symphonic Cycle for Soprano and Orchestra
Benjamin Britten
Prologue
1 Rats away! 2 Messallina. 3 Dance of Death
Epilogue and Funeral March
(Soloist, SOPHIE WYSS)
Benjamin Britten's 'Our Hunting Fathers' was first performed at the Norwich Music Festival last September. Described as a 'Symphonic Cycle' for soprano solo, the words are written or selected by W.H. Auden. It is in five parts, including Prologue and Epilogue, and the music well reflects the satirical character of the words. (Soloist, AUBREY BRAIN> )
Leighton Lucas, who is now conducting the Markova-Dolin Ballet, is the composer of a number of important orchestral and chamber works, including 'Masque of the Sea' (performed at Queen's Hall in 1929), Concertino for violin, 'cello, and wind orchestra (1929), Concerto for string quartet and orchestra (1929), and a Requiem Mass (in memoriam, Elgar, Delius, and Holst). In the 'Sinfonia brevis', the solo horn is accompanied by ten instruments: piccolo, flute, cor anglais, saxophone, piano, harp, xylophone (or drums), viola, 'cello, and bass. The composer has described his Sinfonia as being largely 'an experiment in orchestral textures', and an attempt to convey the characteristic effects of Javanese music by means of modern European instruments.