The BBC Midland Orchestra
Leader, Alfred Cave
Conducted by Leslie Heward
Carl Goldmark (1830-1915) was the son of a cantor in a synagogue in Hungary. He studied at the Vienna Conservatorium and began his professional career as an orchestral violinist, later becoming a piano teacher in Vienna. Goldmark wrote a considerable quantity of music, which includes an opera, several concert overtures, chamber works, a violin concerto, and two symphonies -Symphony No. 1, which is known as the ' Rustic Wedding ' Symphony, and Symphony No. 2 in E flat, to be heard this afternoon.
' Swan White'
Sibelius's ' Swan White ' suite consists of the incidental music to a charming fairy play of Strindberg, the Scandinavian dramatist, who was not as a rule given to charm. In this case, however, he got his material from the folk ballads of his country and not from his own somewhat gloomy conception of life. Sibelius has played up to the spirit of the story, and his music is full of grace and delicacy. The complete suite consists of seven pieces.