The BBC
Scottish Orchestra
(Augmented)
Leader, J. Mouland Begbie
Conductor, Guy Warrack Grieg's 'Two Melodies ' are transcriptions for string orchestra of two songs. The first, ' My Goal brings an exhilarating breath of the mountains. A short middle section of quieter mood follows, and then the brisk spirit comes out again. The second, ' The First Meeting', is a setting of some words of Bjornson, recalling the joy of love's early rapture. Chaykovsky called Rimsky-Korsakov's Spanish Capriccio a ' colossal masterpiece of instrumentation ', which assuredly it is, but, referring to the first performance, in 1887, Rimsky - Korsakov says in his memoirs that ' the opinion formed by both critics and the public, that the Capriccio is a magnificently orchestrated piece of music is wrong. The Capriccio is a brilliant composition for orchestra. The change of timbres, the felicitous choice of melodic designs and figuration patterns, exactly suiting each kind of instrument, brief virtuoso cadenzas for solo instruments, etc., constitute here the very essence of the composition and not its garb or orchestration.'