Lotte LEHMANN (Soprano)
The WIRELESS Symphony ORCHESTRA
(Leader, S. KNEALE KELLEY )
Conducted by PERCY PITT
THis Overture by the Viennese composer Goldmark is not the prelude to any bigger work ; it is almost in the nature of a symphonic poem, and is founded on an old Eastern tale which goes back centuries before the Christian era. The story tells how a great King fell in love with the maid Sakuntala, whom he met while hunting in a sacred grove, and how he gave her a ring. But the king is enchanted by evil spirits, and forgets her, while she loses the ring, and is disowned by the King when she presents herself before him. After much unhappiness, a fisherman finds the ring and restores it to the King, who immediately remembers the maid and at once makes war on the evil spirits, overcoming them and rescuing Sakuntala, so that all ends well.
ALTHOUGH discovered only comparatively recently, the MS. of this Symphony bears just as good evidence of being genuine Beethoven as one or two other early works which are universally accepted as his, and from internal evidence, in the music itself,, its genuineness is practically certain. There are several striking passages which almost any Beethoven enthusiast would recognize as undoubtedly tho work of the master; even the listener who hears it for the first time is certain to discover these for himself.
It must of course be the work of a very youthful Beethoven,but is none the less interesting on that account; that he was planning a Symphony even beforo the one which wo know as the first sheds a new light on his early years. No orchestra score was found, only the parts in MS. ; these were among the papers of the Music Academy in Jena, a very old society closely bound up with the University there. The score had to be compiled from the instrumental parts, and the task was full of difficulties as there were obvious errors in many places.
There are four movements, a lighthearted
Allegro, a melodious slow movement, the Minuet and Trio (Beethoven had not yet substituted the Scherzo for the minuet), and another brisk Allegro.