(Section C)
Led by LAURANCE TURNER
Conducted by WARWICK BRAITHWAITE
SYBIL CRAWLEY (soprano)
Hermann Goetz (1840-1876) is one of those composers whom Fate has ill-treated. Though not a genius of the first rank, he had a very remarkable and individual talent, and by no means deserves the oblivion that has overtaken his works. His Symphony in F is a fine work, but his masterpiece is The Taming of the Shrew, one of the best German comic operas of the last century.
The music to Hjalmar Procope 's Belshazzar's Feast (written some thirty years ago) is, according to Cecil Gray , ' the only work of Sibelius in which one finds a deliberate cultivation of exotic local colour '. Scored for small orchestra with numerous percussion instruments, it is written in pseudo-oriental style. Nevertheless, it bears the stamp of Sibelius's unmistakable style, particularly in the haunting' Night Music'. SYBIL CRAWLEY