Relayed from the Queen's Hall, London
Conducted by Sir Henry Wood.
Raya Garbousova (Violoncello)

THE drowsy meditations of the faun (half goat, half man) are presented in a haze of sound that wonderfully suggests his half-formed images of the nymphs he has pursued with his affections, the woods, the pools and meadows where he has sought them. and. at last, his wondering whether some day he may perhaps meet the great goddess Venus herself. All this is indefinite, emotionally, yet the music, closely attended to is found to offer a series of perfectly clear melodic outlines, the vague effect resulting not from any lack of clarity in texture, but from the use of melodic twists and turns of a peculiarly piquant and attractive kind, and by subtlety of harmony and delicacy of orchestration.

JANACEK (born in 1854) is a Czecho Slovakian composer who worked quietly away for a long time, writing Operas, before he became known outside his circle at Brno (formerly Brunn), where he has taught and played the Pianoforte and Organ for many years. He was over sixty when his Opera Jenufa was produced. This has become well known in his own country and in Austria and Germany, and has also been performed in America.

Janacek's study of folk music (about which he has written a book) has led him to seek a new type of vocal music for his Operas, founded on the natural inflections of the speech and song of the folk, the influence of whose dance and song-tunes is to be found in most of his instrumental pieces also.