The Augemented Station Orchestra, conducted by T.H. Morrison
Vocal Interludes by Robert Burnett (Baritone)
In the fifth Canto of Dante's Inferno we are told of the poet's arrival at a dreadful place mute of all light,' where rages ' the infernal hurricane that never rests.' Here he meets Francesca. who relates her tragic story.
She. the wife of Giovanni Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, was loved by his brother Paolo. Malatesta, finding the lovers together, murdered them.
For their sin they are condemned to drift for ever in the desolate second circle of the Inferno.
Tchaikovsky, in the opening of his tone poem, depicts the gloom of that terrible place of 'Hell's Whirlwind.' Later we hear, on the Clarinet, the pathetic, tender melody of Francesca. After the second appearance of this melody a climax seems to suggest the lovers' tragedy, culminating in their death. Their punishment in the Place of Whirlwinds is depicted in the remaining part of the music.
Till Eulenspiegel is, of course, the legendary high-spirited joker of the thirteenth century, well enough known in this country since Queen Elizabeth's days as Till Owlgluss.
In a Prologue Strauss presents two aspects f Till. The Violins speak of his pensive, gentler Side, and the Horn, in its capricious, bounding tune, tells us of his roguishness.
His adventures include a mad ride through the market place, upsetting everything, and then a masquerade as a monk (in which guise he preaches a mock sermon); next he falls in love, and after that jokes with a lot of dry old pedants. When he tires of them he goes off whistling a jaunty street-song. A high moment is reached when the whole Orchestra gives forth the second Till theme, Slowly and majestically - 'Till at the height of his glory.' But at the last Till is arrested and tried.
His protests of innocence are useless. He is Changed (Trombone drop, Clarinet shriek, and Flute trill - the last supposed to represent his soul flying away). Last comes the Epilogue, with its mingled thoughts of wistfulness and gentle smiles. After all. we muse, he was an ingratiating rogue, with something lovable in him,
Vltava is one of a set of Symphonic Poems celebrating the beauties of Smetana's native Bohemia. The Vltava (Moldau) is the chief river of the country, and here we follow its progress from its source in the depths of the forest until, after tumbling over rapids and streaming past frowning fortresses, it joins the Elbe as a broad, rolling river. It witnesses on the way typical scenes of Bohemian life - a hunt and a peasant wedding, and by moonlight it spies forest nymphs dancing in a glade.
Death and transfiguration is one of the best known of Strauss's Symphonic Poems.
It was completed in 1889 (when the Composer was only twenty-five), and when published in 1891 the score was prefaced by a poem by Alexander Ritter. This was, however, as a matter of fact, written after the music, and is somewhat in the nature of a commentary, Strauss having imposed the work on his own imaginative basis.
