The BBC Midland Orchestra
Leader, Alfred Cave
Conducted by Leslie Heward
Haydn's Symphony
Haydn's Symphony No. 103, in E flat (The Drum Roll) is the eighth of the series of symphonies that he wrote for Salomon in London. It shows the classical symphony brought to its highest state of organisation. Apart from added richness of detail and subject matter, the orchestration is characterised by more freedom of the wind instruments and the lower strings, which obviously results in greater effects of contrast and variety of colour.
Lambert's Suite
Constant Lambert's Horoscope was written in 1937 and was produced at Sadler's Wells in January last year. Its theme is the very ancient belief in the influence exerted on human beings by sun and moon in conjunction with the twelve divisions of the zodiac. The chief characters are a man and a woman. In the words of the composer: The two opposed signs of Leo and Virgo ... struggle to keep the man and woman apart. It is by their mutual sign, .the Gemini, that they are brought together and by the moon that they are finally united.'