(Leader, Laurance Turner )
Conductor, Sir John Barbirolli
Richard Strauss was twenty-five when he conducted the first performance of Don Juan , at. Weimar in 1889. 'It comes off beautifully,' he wrote to his father ... the sound was marvellous, of a gigantic glow and richness.' Based as it is on Lenau's version of the story, the tone poem depicts Don Juan as an idealist rather than a cynic; he is always seeking perfection in womanhood, but disillusion follows quickly upon possession. At the end disappointment and satiety overwhelm him and he allows himself to be killed in a duel. The exultant opening theme suggests the ardent passion of youth.
Dvorak's Symphony in G (known as No. 4, though it was the eighth that he wrote) bears the dedication: ' To the Bohemian Academy of Emperor Franz Joseph for the Encouragement of Art and Literature, in thanks for my election.' It was first performed in Prague in February 1890. Two months later it was p!ayed in London; and in the following year at Cambridge, when Dvorak received the honorary degree of Doctor of Music. It was also published in this country instead of in Germany. In view of these associations it became known as the ' English ' Symphony: a singularly unsuitable title. Even in the ' New World,' written four years later, there are passages which show that Dvorak had by no means forgotten his native land; in the Symphony in G he was clearly thinking of no other. The work, says a Czech writer, ' is a simple lyric, singing of the beauty of our country for the heart's consolation.' And how enchanting are the melodies it sings I Harold Rutland