Leader, BERTRAM Lewis
Conductor,
RICHARD AUSTIN
Relayed from
The Pavilion, Bournemouth
Symphony No. 1, in B flat...Schumann
1. Andante un poco maestoso, Allegro molto vivace ; 2. Larghetto ; 3. Scherzo and Trio ; 4. Allegro animato e grazioso
Schuman's First Symphony is a Spring Symphony. He wrote it (as he told Taubert in February, 1841, a month before the first performance) ' when the first breath of spring was in the air '. And, as Sir Donald Tovey has happily pointed out, it also coincides with ' the springtide of the happiest years of his life—his year of song, 1840, when he triumphed over all the obstacles which old Wieck opposed to his marriage to his Clara, and poured out the first and greatest two volumes of his four volumes of songs; and 1841, when, with his powers as yet undiminished by illness, he devoted his attention to the larger forms of music'. The first movement expresses ' Spring's Awakening ', the last ' Spring's Farewell
In the Steppes of Central Asia Borodin Variations on a Nursery Rhyme (for
Pianoforte and Orchestra) Dohnanyi
(Soloist, FRANK MERRICK )
St. Paul's Suite for Strings Hoht
1. Jig; 2. Ostinato; 3. Intermezzo; 4. Finale
Irish Rhapsody in D minor...Stanford
Borodin's most important orchestral vork after his two fine symphonies .. the ' symphonic sketch ', ' In the Steppes of Central Asia'. It was originally written as a musical background to one of a series of historical tableaux vivants shown during the celebrations of the silver jubilee of the Tsar Alexander II in 1880. The music illustrates the following scene : The silence of the sandy steppes of Central Asia is interrupted by the first sounds of a peaceful Russian song. Then the melancholy refrain of an Oriental song is heard, and with it the tramp of horses and camels. A caravan escorted by Russian soldiers is crossing the immense desert, fearlessly continuing its long journey under the protection of the Russian troops. The caravan proceeds on its way. The songs of the Russians and those of the Asiatics gradually blend together in the same harmony; their refrains are heard for some time and finally die away in the distance.'
