A Symphony Concert

Tue 4^th Dec 1928, 16:00 on 5WA Cardiff

Relayed from the National Museum of Wales
National Orchestra of Wales

Although there is a young and vigorous school of Bohemian composers at the present day, Dvorak remains not only the most popular, but the most truly representative musician of his own country.
He enjoyed but little in the way of education, either in music or in a general way; his own natural genius and an enthusiastic devotion to the folk-music of his own country were the two elements which combined to make of him the great man he was. Though his compositions did not make much use of actual folk-tunes, they are all strongly Bohemian in character, and the vividness of their melody and rhythm has had a great deal to do with the popularity they have won.
The 'Carnival' Overture which is to be played this evening is part of a larger work consisting of three Overtures which Dvorak intended to be performed at once. As he conceived it, the three were called 'Nature', 'Life', and 'Love'. But in this country the second, much better known than either of the others, appears always under the title 'Carnival'.
The three were performed together under the composer's direction, at the farewell concert which he gave in Prague before leaving for America, and were also part of the programme of the first concert which he gave there. On that occasion the programme contained descriptive notes for which he was himself understood to be responsible.
'This composition, which is a musical expression of the emotions awakened in Dr. Antonin Dvorak by certain aspects of the three great creative forces of the Universe-Nature, Life, and Love-was conceived nearly a year ago, while the composer still lived in Bohemia'.
Of the whole work he said: 'The three parts of the Overture are linked together by a certain underlying melodic theme. This theme recurs with the insistence of the inevitable personal note marking the reflections of an humble individual, who observes and is moved by the manifold signs of the unchangeable laws of the Universe'.
The 'Carnival' Overture begins in a real carnival spirit with a brisk and joyous tune. The falling fourth, which is three times repeated at the end of the theme, becomes the starting point for the next tune, and there is one other, introduced by the viola, which has a large share in the first section. A second main tune appears eoon, of rather melancholy character, and thereafter the Overture pursues the customary course, except that the section which is known as the 'working out' is interrupted by a little slow episode in which the flute plays a plaintive melody over a reiterated phrase on the English horn.