DORA LABBETTE (Soprano) HUBERT EISDELL (Tenor)
THE WIRELESS ORCHESTRA Conducted by JOHN ANSELL
Dvorak was happiest in his own Bohemia: he visited this country many times, and spent a few short years in the United States, but he always returned home with real thanksgiving. In the same way his inspiration always flowed most freely and naturally when he had in mind one aspect or another of his native land, and among his last works is a series of five symphonic poems, of which 'The Noon Witch' is one, all of them based on picturesque old legends of Bohemia.
The story, belonging to Bohemian folk lore, is set forth in one of the ballads of Karl Jaromir Erben, and is in some sort a counterpart of the German legend of the Erl King, familiar from Schubert's song. Everybody knows that midnight is a dangerous hour at which to be abroad in lonely places, for then evil spirits are awake and bent on harm to mortals. But in the old Bohemian folk lore, midday is beset with perils of the same order, and the Noon Witch is one of those whose power lasts only for the hour before midday strikes.
The scene of the poem on which Dvorak's music is based, is a little cottage where a peas ant wife is busy preparing the the midday meal; in a corner her child is playing, and her husband is at work in the fields. The child grows uneasy and screams, and at first the mother tries to soothe it with its own playthings, but finally in desperation threatens to call the Noon Witch. That subdues the little one for a time, but soon it grows restless once more and at last the mother in anger calls out to the Noon Witch to come and take her child. In a moment the door opens, and a little old witch enters, crying out 'Give me the child.' The mother, in real fear, snatches up her infant, but the Noon Witch steals ever nearer and nearer with horrible hands stretched out towards the baby, until at last the mother falls swooning to the ground. Midday strikes and the Witch vanishes; the father comes back cheerfully from his work, and is horror-struck to find his wife senseless on the floor, clasping a dead child.