Conductor, B. WALTON
O'DONNELL
ISSAY SCHLAEN (violin)
FÉLICIEN DAVID, a French composer who lived from 1810 to 1876, wrote a number of operas which in his day met with considerable success, particularly his La Perle de Brésil, produced in Paris in 1851. Before this David travelled a good deal in the East and had acquired there a great taste for Eastern music. One of his earliest publications was a collection of oriental melodies for piano solo ; thereafter his music was a good deal coloured with an oriental quality, which he used in his operas regardless of what alien atmosphere the text dealt with. For instance, the Pearl of Brazil might just as well have been domiciled in Constantinople or Syria.
ORIGINALLY written as a ballet, The Szvan Lake was not at first a success, although the fresh and melodious music cannot be blamed for that. Tchaikovsky altered it considerably afterwards and in its present form as an orchestral suite it shows him at his best. The Swan in the original ballet was a fair maid who had been enchanted by a wicked magician.