Louis Kentner (pianoforte)
The BBC Orchestra (Section D)
Leader, Paul Beard
Conducted by Constant Lambert

Schubert's song "The Wanderer" was written in 1816 when the composer was nineteen years of age. It was one of the few songs that became popular during his lifetime. In 1822 Schubert took the second melody (beginning at the words "The Sun himself shines wan and cold") and used it as the principal theme for his "Wanderer Fantasia" for piano solo.
In 1856 Liszt arranged the Fantasia for piano and orchestra, and he stated in a letter that "the whole of the conclusion of the C major Fantasia I have rewritten in modem pianoforte form, and I flatter myself that Schubert would not be displeased with it". Throughout Liszt has, of course, added a certain amount of his own material and embellishments with results that are in keeping with the poetic significance of the music and at the same time are very effective and brilliant from the point of view of pianistic style.
The first movement of Balakirev's Symphony No. 1, in C, is startlingly unconventional. The first six bars of the slow introduction actually contain the germs from which are developed the whole of the material of the allegro, a remarkable movement which shows little trace of the long interruption in its composition. Nor had the conception gone stale, for it would be difficult to imagine anything more stimulating.
After its physical and intellectual exuberance, the scurrying, rather mysterious scherzo sounds almost restful. Then comes a languorous, sensuously beautiful, slow movement, based largely on a quasi-oriental melody first played by the clarinet, at the end of which harp arpeggios lead without a break into the exhilarating finale. Here the first theme is a Russian folk melody. Later comes an intoxicating dance tune, also oriental in type, which Balakirev had acquired during a train journey from an old blind beggar, who "began to sing in a loud voice, accompanying himself on a primitive, fearfully out-of-tune harp". From this melody, the Russian one, and a third, rather barbaric fragment of tune, is built up one of the most exciting movements in the whole range of Russian music.