The Wireless Military Band, conducted by B. Walton O'Donnell
Gwladys Naise (Soprano); Sinclair Logan (Baritone)
Giustino was one of the many Operas Handel produced in his season at Covent Garden. Its Overture (originally written for Strings and Oboes only) is a good example of the form Handel usually employed. It consists of a slow section, then a quick portion in fugal style, next a few connecting bars in slow time, and lastly a good-humoured dancing
Movement.
Astrologers consider that each of the seven planets has an influence on life and affairs. Mars, for example, is the Bringer of War, Saturn the Bringer of Old Age, Uranus the Magician, and so on. Holst, in his orchestral Suite The Planets, aims at expressing a series of emotions in keeping with the traditional significance of the planets.
In Mars we have what Holst himself has called 'sheer brutality and the senselessness of strife.' This is the spirit of relentless horror in war. The menacing opening rhythm persists almost throughout the piece and attains a cumulative force that becomes almost unbearable.
The Woodland Sketches, originally written for Pianoforte, are among the happiest tokens of MacDowell's affection for the countryside. In these pieces we hear how his imagination responded to the legends and folk-lore of Europe (he spent some years in study and teaching in Germany, and loved to travel in England and Scotland), and to the beauties of the wood- lands of his native America. The moods vary from the tender wistfulness of To a Wild Rose to the whimsicality of From Uncle Remus, a depiction of one of Joel Chandler Harris's delightful tales of animal life. The indication at the head of this last piece - 'humorously, joyously,' gives us the cue, and we have only to think of any of the impudent adventures of Brer Rabbit to enjoy the piece, written, we may be sure, with a twinkle in the eye.
