Relayed from the National Museum of Wales.

National Orchestra of Wales

Sakuntala is founded on a Sanskrit drama, written some six centuries B.C. The work is really a Symphonic Poem. The great King Dusehjanta meets Sakuntala, daughter of a Nymph, in a sacred grove which he penetrates while hunting. He falls in love with her, and gives her a ring, with the injunction to follow him to the Palace.
After he has left her, misfortune falls on both.
The King is enchanted and forgets her, while Sakuntala loses the ring when washing in the sacred river. When she comes to the Palace, the King denies her, and her mother takes her away in distress.
The ring is found by a fisherman, who brings it to the King. He at once remembers Sakuntala, makes war upon the evil spirits who have caused the trouble, rescues the maiden, and all ends happily.

Borodin's piece has a 'programme':-
'In the silence of the sandy steppes of Central Asia ring the first notes of a peaceful Russian song. One hears, too, the melancholy strains of songs of the Orient; one hears the tramp of horses and camels as they come. A caravan, escorted by Russian soldiers, crosses the vast desert, fearlessly pursuing its long journey, trusting wholly in its Russian warrior-guard. Ceaselessly the caravan advances. The Russian songs and the native songs mingle in one harmony; their strains are long heard over the desert, and at last are lost in the distance.'
Borodin aims at suggesting the great spaces of the plains by high, held notes which continue almost unbroken throughout. The Russian song is heard at the opening. A few moments later comes the Oriental song.

Sir Frederic Cowen wrote his fifth Symphony (in F) for the Cambridge University Musical Society, which first played it in 1887. The work, which has no 'programme,' is in four Movements. In the Introduction to the First Movement we have hints at several of the themes to be heard in the course of the Symphony. The four Movements are: (1) Slow and dignified, leading to Quick and lively; (2) Light and brisk; (3) Slow and expressive; (4) Quick, bold, fiery.

Programme arranged and given by Pupils of Wood Street Girls' School, Cardiff.

by James E. Bell.
Relayed from the New Palace Theatre, Bristol.

The Suite consists of four Movements: (1) Elegy; (2) Melancholy Waltz; (3) Scherzo; (4) Theme and Variations. The last is a lengthy piece-twelve Variations in Tchaikovsky's most brilliant vein, showing him as one of the deftest writers in this form, and a magnificent orchestrator. The Polonaise, the last of the Variations, is the longest and most developed.
Like many of the works of this self-doubting man, the Suite was produced in anxiety, with many a dubious moment, and the inevitable query 'Am I played out?' His moods of exaltation were often shot with fear. When he had finished the work, he wrote: 'A work of greater genius than the new Suite never was. My opinion of the new-born composition is thus optimistic. God knows what I shall think of it a year hence....'

(9.15 Local Announcements)
(to 0.00)