The London Symphony Orchestra
(Leader, W. H. Reed)
Conducted by Sir Landon Ronald

Symphonic Poem, Villon .. Wallace

The son of an eminent surgeon, William Wallace was intended for the same calling, and was a brilliant graduate in Medicine, of Glasgow and Vienna Universities. The call of music proved to be too strong, however, and though Dr. Wallace did splendid work during the War at the head of the Ophthalmic section of the Army Medical Services, he has for many years past given himself up mainly to composition. He has made his mark, too, in the world of letters, writing not only the words of much of his own vocal music, but contributing articles of value and interest to periodical literature. He is the author of a mystery play, The Divine Surrender, and of an important work on music published in 1908. Villon is the sixth of his Symphonic Poems in order of composition; it was first produced at a 'Prom' in 1909. It presents the poet with something of the sympathy which Strauss shows towards Till Eulenspiegel - rogue and vagabond, with but little regard for the proprieties of mankind's laws, but gifted, none the less, with two real saving graces : poetry and laughter. It is the finer and more tender side of the character which William Wallace 's music portrays.
Symphonic Poem, Don Juan Strauss

The central figure of this vivid and sparkling music of Strauss is a very different person from Mozart's gay and debonair Don Giovanni. He was the hero of a poem by Lenau, a Hungarian whose real name was von Strehlenau; at the early age of forty-two he lost his reason, and died, hopelessly insane, in 1850. Don Juan was first performed in 1889 at Weimar, while its composer was conductor of the Court Orchestra there, and was enthusiastically received. The most obviously melodious, and the most easily understood of all Strauss's Symphonic Poems, it has long ago won its way to the affections of music lovers all over the world ; not even the older school, with their insistence upon form and even formality, can be indifferent to the lyrical beauty of its themes, and their brilliant presentation. In its design it adheres fairly closely to the Rondo of the classical Sonatas and Symphonies, and in the varied forms in which the chief themes return, we can follow the adventures of the Don in his crazy search for his ideal of incarnate womanhood. There are four principal themes heard at the outset, all glowing with the youthful ardour of the quest. These are set forth and developed at some length, to form the first section of the work. The second section of the poem, which is quoted in the score, tells of disillusionment. That is set before us in the music no less vividly than the zest and youthful vigour of the first part, the principal theme of which reappears. It introduces the closing section, representing the tragedy with which Lenau's poem comes to an early end-Don Juan's death and his despair in realising that life has lost its charm for him, that nothing is left but ' the cold and dark ash-strewn hearth.'

Symphonic Study, Falstaff..... Elgar

That great Shakespearean and thoroughly English character, Sir John Falstaff, is the subject of a number of operas, and has inspired a number of composers each to draw his portrait differently. As treated by Verdi in his last and finest opera, Falstaff, the man is perhaps nearest in conception to Shakespeare's original, though both Hoist, in The Boar's Head, and Vaughan Williams , in Sir John in Love, have dealt sympathetically with one or other phase of Falstaff's many-sided character. But as a 'study' of the knight, Elgar's symphonic poem is the most comprehensive of the three English works, for he alone has gone deeper into the spirit of the knight, gentleman, and soldier, as revealed by the dramatist, than is confined within the limits of an encounter with Doll Tearsheet, or an adventure in a soiled-linen basket.

So deeply, indeed, that when the first performance was given at the Leeds Festival in 1913, Elgar had already thought it wise to prepare the audience by means of a long and detailed programme note.

Falstaff is played through in one movement, but falls into four main divisions. The first, designed as a courtly and genial conversation with Prince Henry, shows us the knight in 'a green old age, frank, gay, corpulent, loose, unprincipled, and luxurious.' The second takes us to the town, the tavern, and gay adventures, followed by the first of two interludes, scored for small orchestra, in which Falstaff dreams of his boyhood as a page to the Duke of Norfolk.

The third division is Falstaff going off to the wars, followed by the second interlude, a quiet movement in Shallow's Orchard. The last division, an epilogue. begins as a triumphal march,- and ends with a picture of the tragic decay and death of the greatest and most lusty-hearted roysterer in literature.