Campoli (violin)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
(Leader, Paul Beard)
Conducted by Basil Cameron

Schubert completed his Sixth Symphony in February 1818, shortly after his twenty-first birthday. It is sometimes called his Little Symphony in C to distinguish it from No. 9, the Great C major written in 1828, the last year of his life. No. 6, in which a Scherzo appears in a Schubert symphony for the first time, is a gay and attractive work, revealing the influence of Rossini.

With its unfailing melodiousness, its clarity of texture, and the opportunity it offers for brilliance of execution, Saint-Saens' Violin Concerto in B minor is among the most acceptable works of a composer whose reputation has suffered some diminishment in recent years. It is dedicated to Sarasate, who was the first to play it in Paris in 1881. More highly spiced harmonies, suggesting the brightness of the Spanish scene, occur in Ravel's 'Alborada del Gracioso' ('Morning Song of the Jester'), originally written as a piano piece - one of a set of Miroirs - and afterwards arranged for orchestra. (Harold Rutland)

(Schubert's Symphony in E completed by Felix Weingartner: next Saturday)