Relayed from the National Museum of Wales.
National Orchestra of Wales

Mendelssohn was an enthusiastic, hard, and conscientious worker, but even he did not always feel inspired by a task. He was asked to write an Overture for Victor Hugo's Ruy Bias, but he disliked the play, and put off writing his music until a few days before it was to be performed. Then he finished the Overture in less than three days.
The opening consists of the alternation of two phrases, one consisting of slow, solemn chords and the other of soft, rapid, detached notes; this latter is an anticipation of the First Main Tune (very quick), which presently arrives. This may reasonably be taken as a suggestion of the bold, fiery character of the hero of the drama. The volume of tone gradually increases to a climax, leading to a recurrence of the solemn phrase, which precedes the Second Main Tune. This starts with a very soft series of detached notes, and is then repeated and continued. A few other tunes appear, but these are the outstanding features.
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National Orchestra of Wales
Conducted by Warwick Braithwaite

An old French house with Louis XV period furniture and hangings. A lady and her young daughter have taken the house for the Summer months and the child asks her mother about the gay huntresses, cupids and shepherdesses on the walls.
Over

Recalled to Life from A Tale of Two Cities
Adapted by W. H. Skeen.
Played by the Station Radio Players
Scene; A room in Defarge's house in Paris
Time: Some years before the Revolution
In the year 1757, Alexandra Manott, an eminent young doctor in Paris, innocently incurred the enmity of a powerful member of the French aristocracy and late one evening was seized by his authority in the street and secretly conveyed to the Bastille. His English wife died not long afterwards, leaving their child to grow up in the belief that her father was dead. When eighteen years had passed, Lucie received a message from the bankers who acted as her guardians to proceed to Paris, to meet one of their representatives, who had an important and secret disclosure to make.

Bizet's Overture was written for Pasdeloup's concerts in 1874, and we may take it that it was inspired by some of the feelings of a patriotic Frenchman after the war of 1870-his pride and sorrow, his love and hopes for the future. The music is scored for a large Orchestra with much Brass and Percussion. Its tunes are vigorous and tender by turns and its colourings vivid.

(9.30 Local Announcements; Sports Bulletin)
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