Relayed from the National Museum of Wales
National Orchestra of Wales
(Cerddorfa Genedlaethol Cymru)
Born at Cheltenham in 1874, Mr. Holst was a specially brilliant student of the Royal College of Music in London. His work as composer has been steadily gaining wider recognition, until now there are many who count him the most gifted British composer since Elgar.
This Suite embodies impressions of a holiday which the composer spent in Algeria. It gives a wonderfully convincing picture of the East, in a way which our Western music does not often contrive to do; the effects are made largely by the cunning use of reminiscences of real Eastern music, and though it is difficult to reproduce it with any fidelity on our instruments, Hoist gets round that difficulty very cleverly.
The Suite is dedicated to Mr. Edwin Evans, the critic, and his initials are used to form the starting point of the chief tune of the first movement, called simply 'First Dance.'
The second movement is also a dance, and the third is called 'In the street of the 'Ouled Nails.'
(to 12.45)
