Alan Loveday (violin)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
(Leader, Paul Beard )
Conductor, Sir Malcolm Sargent
Tchaikovsky
Cossack Dance (Mazeppa)
7.36 app. Violin Concerto in D
8.11 app. Symphony No. 5. in E minor From the Royal Albert Hall , London
The ardour with which Tchaikovsky wrote his Violin Concerto was considerably damped when Leopold Auer , the famous violinist, told him that its difficulties were so great as to be almost insuperable. Three years passed before any violinist would attempt it; it was then performed in Vienna, the soloist being Adolf Brodsky , who later settled in England and became Principal of the Manchester College of Music. The concerto owes its present popularity, not only to the wonderful opportunities it offers the soloist, but to the many haunting melodies it contains.
Shortly before beginning work on his
Fifth Symphony, in the summer of 1888, Tchaikovsky settled in a new house at Frolovskoe, between Klin and Moscow. There, in thickly wooded country, with a view of the central Russian plains in the distance, he wrestled with his daemon; seeking and finding inspiration with some difficulty. He was passing through one of those phases known to a!most all creative artists, when they wonder if they have shot their bolt and said all they have to say. Even after the production of the work at St. Petersburg he remained doubtful, and wondered whether he was 'done for.' Within a few years, however, and particularly after performances conducted by Nikisch. the symphony achieved a phenomenal success. Harold Rutland