Directed by Ralph Letts with Catherine Wendol

by Hetty Bolton

Leader, Tate Gilder
Conducted by Harold Lowe
Appleton Moore (baritone)

at the BBC Theatre Organ

Leader, Daniel Melsa
Conductor, Eric Fogg
Alfredo Campoli (violin)
Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) was one of the leading French composers of the nineteenth century. He lived a long and vigorous life devoted to the service of his art-as pianist, teacher and composer. A fluent composer and excellent craftsman, Saint-Saëns gave his attention to almost every form of composition.
Until quite recently Saint-Saens's five piano concertos and three violin concertos were frequently heard in England. The B minor Concerto is a melodious and elegantly constructed work, and is most effectively written for the solo instrument.

The BBC
Midland Orchestra
Leader, Alfred Cave
Conducted by Leslie Heward
Of Sibelius's seven symphonies the fourth in A minor is held by many musicians to be his greatest. In the space of half-an-hour he says compactly, and with the utmost restraint and economy of means, all that goes to make a typical Sibelius utterance. The whole work is stark in the sense that it is stripped of all superfluities of thematic material and orchestral colouring, yet it is packed with every ingredient necessary to a symphony in a highly-concentrated form.
The first movement, in slow time throughout, lasts only eight minutes; the second in quick time, four minutes; the third, the slow movement, eight minutes; and the fourth, again in quick time, ten minutes. In nothing does Sibelius better show his deep regard for form but his utter disregard for convention than in this magnificent work.