by Dorothy Folkard

Orchestra of the Berlin State
Opera, conducted by Weissmann : Overture, Poet and Peasant (Suppe)
The London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Hamilton Harty : Valse triste, Op. 44 (Sibelius)
Orchestra of the Berlin State
Opera, conducted by Weissmann: Coppelia Fantasy (Delibes)
The Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Stokowski: Bacchanale (Samson and Delilah, Act 3) (Saint-Saens). March of the Caucasian Chief (Ippolitov-Ivanov)

at the BBC Theatre Organ

Leader, Daniel Melsa
Conductor, Eric Fogg
The subject of Walton's Overture, first performed in 1926, is the place of embarkation, before the days of piers and landing-stages, known for centuries as Portsmouth Point. Thomas Rowlandson , the eighteenth-century caricaturist, made a colour print of it, and Walton's music was inspired by this breezy, bustling, humorous picture.

Directed by Rene Tapponnier from the Carlton Hotel

The BBC Midland Orchestra
Leader, Alfred Cave
Conducted by Leslie Heward
It was not until 1800, when Beethoven was thirty years of age, that he embarked upon his First Symphony in C, which is more or less carefully modelled on the conventional lines followed by his predecessors. In the Second Symphony in D, however, he shows complete mastery over technical problems, and although he still accepts the symphonic pattern of Haydn and Mozart and uses the normal classical orchestra without trombones, the firm and unmistakable signature of Beethoven is apparent throughout, particularly in the fiery first movement. And there is one magical passage near the end of the finale that could have been written by no one else.
While on a short holiday in the country in 1873 Tchaikovsky wrote his Fantasy ' The Tempest ' in ten days. He tells us that ' I found myself in a mood of serene exbltation, wandered in the day through the woods, walked each evening in the deep valley, and at night, sitting by the open window, listened to the solemn silence all around, broken now and again by some indefinite sound of nature. During those two weeks, without the least labour-just as if I had been guided by some supernatural power-I sketched out my "Tempest ".' It was first performed at Moscow on December 19 of that year.