Relayed from the National Museum of Wales.
(to 13.45)
Relayed from the Carlton Restaurant.
(9.15 Local Announcements)
National Orchestra of Wales
Leader, Albert Voorsanger
Conducted by Warwick Braithwaite
In The South - Alassio is a musical record of impressions of Italy-more especially of 'a glorious afternoon in the Vale of Andora,' with snow-tipped mountains on the horizon, and the blue Mediterranean, and with thoughts of the strife and power of the old Roman civilization, suggested by the ruins at hand.
The tunes out of which In the South is constructed are all Elgar's own. One of them in the middle, a tune of pastoral feeling, has been spoken of as an Italian folk-tune, but the composer states that this is an error.
The Overture was first heard at the Covent Garden Elgar Festival of 1904.
Debussy's Prelude is a dream-picture of a yesterday-afternoon, vaguely remembered by a Faun (a woodland half-deity), who tries to recall whether he actually encountered 'nymphs, white and golden goddesses,' or whether it was but the 'shadow of a vision, no more substantial than the notes of his own flute.'
The music was suggested by a poem of Mallarme. Its lines and its images have not been 'followed,' but rather felt or experienced, so filmy and luxurious is this wonderful painting in the tones of a modern orchestra.
An Opera in One Act by Herbert Bedford.
Death and Transfiguration is one of the best-known of Strauss' 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 composed the work on his own imaginative basis.
The work is in four sections.
I (Slow). The sick man lies in his bed and dreams of 'childhood's golden day.'
II (Quick, with great agitation). A fierce, delirious fight with Death. Once again there follows stillness, and in III (Slower - a lengthy section) the dying man reviews, as in a trance, all his past life. At length there comes a briefer, fiercer struggle, in which Death strikes his final blow.
IV (At a moderate speed, and tranquil).
The stillness of death is succeeded by the Transfiguration.
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