(Section C)
Led by LAURANCE TURNER
Conducted by Sir GRANVILLE BANTOCK
Hamish MacCunn , the richly gifted Scotsman whose untimely death was so heavy a loss to British music, was little more than twenty when this stirring piece appeared. Instinct with all that is most picturesque and vivid in the national idiom, it won an immediate success and has ever since been popular. The tale on which it is based is common to the folk-lore of many lands. In Scott's version, which was MacCunn's inspiration, the Daemon Lover carried off a fair lady from her husband and two bonnie babes, on his ship whose ' masts were of the beaten gold '. But very soon she spied his cloven foot, and watched with horror as he grew to monstrous height. The music presents the whole impression of the ballad, rather than illustrating the course of the grim tale.
Prelude and Courante (Ravenswood)
Mackenzie
Alia marcia (The Tale of Tsar Saltan)
Rimsky-Korsakov
Suite, Swanwhite ........ Sibelius i. The Peacock; 2. The Maiden with the Roses; 3. Listen, the Robin sings ; 4. The Prince alone ; 5 Swanwhite and the Prince
The ' Swanwhite' suite consists of the incidental music to a charming fairy play of Strindberg, the Scandinavian dramatist, who was not as a rule given to charm. In this case, however, he got his material from the folk ballads of his country and not from his own somewhat gloomy conception of life. Sibelius has played up to the spirit of the story, and his music is full of grace and delicacy. The whole suite consists of seven pieces, only five of which are being played here.