Leader, Alfred Cave
Conducted by Leslie Heward
Mozart's 'Linz' Symphony
Mozart's Symphony No. 36, in C, is called 'The Linz' because it was written in the town of Linz. While staying there in 1783 with a certain Count Thun, Mozart gave a special concert. It is more than probable that he is referring to the 'Linz' Symphony in the following letter: 'As I have not a single symphony with me, I am writing one for dear life, to be ready in time.'
Dvorak's Symphonic Variations
These Variations were originally composed in 1877 and numbered Op. 40, then were apparently forgotten for ten years even by the composer himself. They were resuscitated and revised in 1887 and sent to Richter, who produced them in London in May of that year.
The variations - twenty-eight in number - are essentially melodic (like Elgar's 'Enigma'), not harmonic-structural variations on the lines of Beethoven's greatest sets and those of Brahms-a fact that did not in the least interfere with Brahms's admiration of this Dvorak work.