Constance Cummings (narrator)
Owen Brannigan (bass)
Iso Elinson (piano)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
(Leader, Paul Beard )
Conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent
From the Royal Albert Hall. London
Part 1
Chopin's two Piano Concertos both date from the time when he was winning fame as a youthful virtuoso. The one in F minor, though known as No. 2, was actually the first to be written (in 1829, when he was nineteen). Throughout the work the soloist is in the foreground, the piano-writing being notably elaborate and graceful. Chopin himself said that the slow movement was written ' whilst my thoughts were with my ideal ': his ideal at that time being a young singer, Constantia Gladowska.
'Don Juan ,' written when Strauss was in his early twenties, was one of the first of his symphonic poems. Based as it is on Lenau's version of the story, Don Juan is depicted as an idealist rather than a cynic; he is always seeking perfection in womanhood, but disillusion follows quickly upon possession. At the end disappointment and satiety overwhelm him and he allows himself to be killed in a duel. The exultant opening theme suggests the ardent passion of youth.