Under the direction of JOHAN HOCK from Queen's College Chambers Lecture
Hall, Birmingham
THE BIRMINGHAM PHILHARMONIC
STRING ORCHESTRA
Leader, Norris Stanley
Conductor, JOHAN HOCK
BEATRICE HEWITT (pianoforte) The wealthy Russian music-publisher,
Belaiev, himself a fine amateur viola-player, was a passionate lover of chamber music. Indeed, it might almost be said that Russian chamber music indirectly owes more to him than directly to any single composer. In 1886 Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Liadov, and Glazunov jointly commemorated his birthday in a quartet, each movement of which is based on a theme derived from his name: B (the German name for B flat), ]a (the French for A), F. In February of the following year Borodin died and when Belaiev's birthday came round again only three of the collaborators were left to celebrate it in 1887 with this delightful little ' Birthday' Quartet. It will be heard this afternoon on a string orchestra instead of on a string quartet.