THE STATION ORCHESTRA, conducted by JOSEPH LEWIS -
A bout the time at which The Magic Flute was written Freemasonry was much in the air.
Mozart was a Freemason, and the curious plot of the Opera has Masonic ideas at its foundation.
There is much elaborate ceremonial in the opera, and we hear suggestions of this in the impressive introduction to the Overture, and also later in its course.
After the Introduction we have the First Main Tune. This is ' fugal,' i.e., one ' voice ' (in this ease an instrumental ' voice ') starts all alone with the Tune ; next another voice enters, repeating the Tune at a different pitch, and so on. This First Main Tune really runs through most of the Overture. For instance, Bassoons and Clarinets continue playing the beginning of it while Oboe and Flute are playing the Second Main Tune.
With this material the Overture trips along happily and straightforwardly, with only one serious check—when. we have solemn ceremonial again recalled.
HAROLD MILLS (Violin)
(Picture on page 470)
MENDELSSOHN'S
'HEAR MY PRAYER'
(Motet for Soprano Solo, Chorus and Orchestra)
Soloist, RONALD JONES (Picture on page 470)
LJEAR MY PRAYER, a setting of a version of Psalm 55, was written in 1884 for one of the series of sacred concerts then being given in London at Crosby Hall. It became one of the most popular of all the Composer's works ; yet for the copyright of this and of the famous Violin Concerto he only received twenty guineas in all
DELIBES made his name as a successful
Composer of Ballets and short Comic
Operas. Sylvia was the successor to hisextremely successful first Ballet, Coppelia, but there was a gap of six years between the two, for the Franco-German War of 1870 broke out a few weeks after Coppelia was produced.
Four separate pieces make up this Sylvia
Suite.
The First is a lively PRELUDE, with the title,
The Huntresses.
The Second starts with a short Intermezzo, then breaks into a lazy, easy-going SLOW WALTZ.
The Third is the popular PIZZICATO—a piquant little trifle mainly for 'pizzicato' (i.e.. plucked) Strings.
The Last is a rather longer, jubilant piecca BACCHANAL. A festival of the God of Wine is held. There is represented a long procession-satyrs, Bacchic priests, the Muse of Comedy and Terpsichore, Muse of the Dance, with her train of girls dancing and playing the lyre. At length the revels begin and Bacchus himself arrives.