MAURICE COLE (Pianoforte)
THE WIRELESS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
(Leader, S. KNEALE KELLEY )
Conducted by PERCY Pitt
LIKE moro than one of Weber's pieces of instrumental music, this has a story to relate. It tells of a lady whoso Knight is fighting with the Crusaders in the Holy Land. For a long time she has heard nothing of him, and the first two sections of the piece set forth the sadness and anxiety which beset her, and her fears lest he may have fallen in battle. Then, softly at first, as though in the distance, march music is heard, and the lady sees a gay procession with trumpet* sounding and banners waving, Knights and Squires riding homewards. As the train draws near, she sees with joy her own Knight riding among the others, and with the gladness of their meeting, the piece comes to a triumphant end.
IN April, 1829, at tho age of twenty, Mendelssohn left his home and family for the first time in his life, to visit this country. He appeared in London both as pianist and composer, and was received with the warmest of welcomes by the British world of music. The whole musical season was indeed something of a personal triumph for the young foreigner, and in some ways he must have been quite glad to reach the end of those strenuous weeks and to sot off for a visit to Scotland, reaching Edinburgh on April 28. It was there, in the old palace of Holyrood, that the idea of a Scottish Symphony first occurred to him. In his own words :
' In the evening twilight we went today to the palace where Queen Mary lived and loved ; a little room is shown there with a winding staircase leading up to the door ; up this way they came, and found Rizzio in that little room, pulled him out, and three rooms off there is a dark- corner where they murdered him. The chapel close to it is now roofless, grass and ivy grow there, and at that broken altar Mary was crowned Queen of Scotland. Everything around is broken and mouldering, and the bright sky shines in. I believe I found today in that old chapel the beginning of my Scottish Symphony.'
The work itself was not actually completed until 1842. It was played repeatedly in Germany with invariable success, and on its performance at a Philharmonic Concert in London under Mendelssohn's own direction, in June of that year, it mot with the most enthusiastic reception. After the performance, Mendelssohn, by Her Majesty's permission, dedicated it to Queen Victoria.
EVERYBODY knows at least one of Daquin's pieces, this jolly little pianoforte solo in which he imitates the cuckoo. Born in Paris before the end of the seventeenth century, he was a remarkablo child prodigy and played the harpsichord before King Louis XIV when he was only six. At the ago of twelve he was an organist, taking the place of his godmother's ihusband, and on one occasion defeated the great Rameau, whose name is now so much better known to most people, in a contest for an organist's post
He is best remembered by his many harpsichord pieces, especially the first book which contains the famous ' Cuckoo,' but he wrote for organ and other instruments as well, and left besides a considerable volume of vocal music, both sacred and secular. He lived to the good old age of 78, dying in Paris in 1772.