Conducted by Basil Cameron

The history of Honegger's 'Pastorale d'ete' is curious. A Marmande violin maker, Leo Sir, had constructed six new instruments - from a 'sub-double bass' to a 'super-soprano violin' - which with the four normal members of the string group would form a novel sort of dixtet.

Honegger was invited to write a composition for this combination and sketched out a Pastoral, only to abandon it owing to its unsuitability.

He finally wrote a fresh work, 'Hymnus', for Sir's 'dixtet' and remodelled the Pastoral for string quintet, four solo wood-wind, and a horn. Embellished with a quotation from Rimbaud - 'I have embraced the summer dawn' - this charmingly idyllic little work won immediate popularity with its first performance on February 17, 1921, under Vladimir Golschmann.