Paul Tortelier (cello)
New London Orchestra
(Leader, Leonard Hirsch)
Conducted by Walter Goehr
During the years 1924-30 Hindemith wrote six concertos for chamber orchestra, with solo parts for piano, cello. violin, viola, viola d'amore, and organ respectively. Opus
'36 No. 2, for cello and ten instruments, belongs to the year 1925. It consists of four movements, and the orchestra is made up of one each of the following instruments: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone. violin, cello, and double-bass.
Ravel's Mother Goose Suite opens with an ethereal Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty.1 Then come 'Hop o' try Thumb' and 'Laideronette, Empress of the Pagodas' (the Pagodas being strange little creatures who sing and play upon instruments made of nutshells and almond husks). In 'The Conversation between Beauty and the Beast,' Beauty consents to marry the Beast (many men are worse monsters, she says) and he is suddenly transformed into a handsome prince who thanks her for breaking the spell of his enchantment. In 'The Fairy Garden,' which ends the Suite, Prince Charming finds the Princess asleep; as the sun rises, she awakens; a fanfare is played as the other characters reappear, and a fairy enters and blesses them all.
(Harold Rutland)