'The night it is gude Hallowe'en,
The Fairy Folk do ride'.
The Station Orchestra, conducted by Warwick Braithwaite
As most people know, the plot of Humperdinck's most typical and charming work, Hansel and Gretel, is taken from Grimm's fairy tales. It tells of the witch who enticed boys and girls to her ginger-bread house, and then cooked and ate them. The witch, having captured Hansel and his sister and tied them up, rides upon her broom, singing in triumph.
The weird story of Saint-Saens' piece is by now familiar to most listeners. It comes from a poem by Henri Cazalis. The composer gives us a vivid representation of Death fiddling for the midnight capers of skeletons. Their bones knock together, as the Xylophone tells us. The dance goes on until cock-crow disperses the 'ghostly crew.
Brunnhilde, beloved child of Wotan, has disobeyed him, and must be punished. No longer may she ride the storms and exult in the wildness of her godhead. As a mortal she must live henceforth. She is to be awakened by the first man who encounters her. She pleads that only a true hero shall make her captive, and as a last boon Wotan, having laid her to sleep upon a rock, summons the fire-god. As he points his spear here and there, spurts of flame issue from the rocks around her, and the famous Fire Music flames and hisses and glows in the Orchestra. As Wotan turns slowly away, we hear, thundered out by the brass, the sturdy, martial melody prophetic of the hero who shall win her-Siegfried.
Seen on the stage this is an unforgettable scene.
In concert performance it remains one of the most vivid and memorable passages in music.
Ghoulies and Ghosties
A Fantasy in One Scene
'From ghoulies and ghosties and four-footed beasties,
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us'. (Old Scottish Litany.)
Scene: A well-built grey stone house standing a little off a lonely road in the Highlands. It is a windy night and the river is rising. The wind blows down the valley from the Grampians. The house is obviously a shooting-box, but it is deserted, save for a caretaker. Two young men come to the door at 9 p.m. They knock. Mrs. Urquhart comes to the door.
The Valkyries are warrior-maidens who bring to Valhalla the bodies of warriors from the battlefields, who shall serve to guard that home of the gods.
In this Prelude to the Third Act of The Valkyrie we have a wonderfully vivid depiction of the galloping of the horses. There are few finer suggestions of elemental force in all music.
