Gioconda de Vito (violin)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
(Leader, Paul Beard )
Conductor, Sir Adrian Boult
(Gioconda de Vilo broadcasts by permission of Harold Holt Ltd.)
Rjvel explained that his aim in writing Uaphnis and Chloe was ' to compose a vast musical fresco.' Finely wrought as it is, fresh, sparkling, and tender, the work ravishes the senses and seems to conjure up the youth of the world. Founded on the Greek Pastoral by Longus, which tells of the love of Daphnis and Chloe, a young shepherd and shepherdess, it was produced as a ballet by Diaghilev in Paris in 1912. The music to be heard tonight is taken from the third and last scene. Chloe, rescued from the pirates by Pan, comes to the grove consecrated to the nymphs and finds Daphnis prostrate with grief at her loss. Overjoyed at seeing each other again, they embrace, and learn from Lammon, an old shepherd, that Pan has intervened and saved Chloe in memory of his love for the nymph Syrinx. In their gratitude the lovers enact in mime Pan's wooing of Syrinx, and the ballet ends with a general dance of rejoicing. The ' Symphonic Fragments ' are continuous, though they fall easily into three parts: Daybreak, Pantomime, and General Dance.
Harold Rutland