Programme Index

Discover 11,128,835 listings and 293,358 playable programmes from the BBC

Conducted by Julius Harrison
THE AUGMENTED STATION ORCHESTRA
HANS SACHS, the cobbler-poet of Nuremberg, is championing the cause of the young knight Walter, whom some of the pedantic Mastersingers are chary of welcoming to their Guild. Early in the morning of Midsummer Day Sachs sits in his room, a great volume on his lap, and meditates on men's incessant, bitter strife with one another (in the night half the town had been fighting in the street over a trivial affair) and considers how he may turn it to the ends he has in view - the furthering of Walter's fortunes with the Guild, and helping the youth to win the maiden he loves.
FRANCK'S music is serious and often highly emotional, sometimes mystical, always deeply felt and generally extremely beautiful. His only Symphony has three Movements. FIRST MOVEMENT. There is a slow Introduction. Note its opening Tune in the Lower Strings ; a great deal grows out of this. Then comes a quick passage in which that opening Tune is extended and stiffened into something very vigorous and forceful-really the First Main Tune of the Movement. Then the slow passage returns; the quick First Main Tune is heard again, and is now followed by a Second Main Tune-a tender one, opening, in Strings alone, with a scale-wise ascent of four notes, by which it can easily be recognized whenever it returns. This material is developed for a little time, and then there grows up an orchestral climax, and at its height there is a triumphant syncopated tune for Full Orchestra-a Third Main Tune. From this point on it is a matter of development, and then of recapitulation of the material heard, and listeners should by now be well acquainted with this. The SECOND MOVEMENT moves at a gentle, but not slow speed. Plucked Strings and Harps begin with a tender melancholy. In a moment the Cor Anglais (Alto Oboe) creeps in with a graceful tune. A somewhat livelier mood is represented by the middle portion of the Movement, and then the pensive mood returns. THIRD MOVEMENT (Not too quick). This is a Movement of imposing strength and vigour. After five or six bars of Introduction, the 'Cellos enter with the joyous First Tune. The Second Tune, some little time later, cannot be missed; it opens with a dignified phrase for Brass alone. From these Tunes, and several from the preceding Movements, a magnificent Finale is evolved.

Contributors

Conducted By:
Julius Harrison

(Continued) -
DOROTHY MANLEY (Pianoforte) and Orchestra DELIUS'S 'Pianoforte Concerto was first written in 1897 (when the Composer was thirty-four) during a trip to Florida, where Delius once had an orange plantation. The work was re-written some ten years later, the original three Movements being condensed into one. Its construction is simple. The first section contains several themes, the treatment of which is very clear. A slow section is linked to this, and after it, the themes of the opening section are represented with new harmonies and different orchestration. The Concerto ends with a short, brilliant coda.

Concerto - Delius
ORCHESTRA ' Nutcracker ' Suite - Tchaikovsky
ARTHUR FEAR The Wanderer - Harrison
I blame thee not - Schumann
Woo thou thy snowflake - Sullivan
ORCHESTRA Hungarian March - Berlioz

Contributors

Pianoforte:
Dorothy Manley

2ZY Manchester

Appears in

About this data

This data is drawn from the Radio Times magazine between 1923 and 2009. It shows what was scheduled to be broadcast, meaning it was subject to change and may not be accurate. More