Leader, Philip Whiteway
Conducted by PETER MONTGOMERY
HUGO THOMPSON (baritone)
In the summer of 1879 Rimsky-Korsakov wrote a string quartet entirely based on Russian folk-tunes, the movements being entitled respectively : ' In the Fields ', ' In the Maidens' Room ', ' Khorovod ' (a kind of choral round dance), and ' At the Monastery '. It was tried through in private, but the composer disliked the work and laid it aside till the following year. Then, having completed the opera Snow Maiden, he took the quartet out of his desk and began to orchestrate it, turning it into a ' sinfonietta '. The Sinfonietta was not completed till 1884, however. It consists of only the first three movements of the quartet, which were drastically revised as well as orchestrated. (The material of the fourth movement was afterwards used in Sadko.)
The Sinfonietta is one of the biggest orchestral works that have ever been based entirely on folk-tunes. The chief melody of the slow movement has also been used by Stravinsky in The Firebird. The first movement (which is being played alone this afternoon) is autumnal in mood, the words of the opening melody being ' Over the fields creep the mist

Relayed from
Fisherwick Church, Belfast
Order of Service
Scripture Sentences
Doxology, Hail, gladdening Light
(Psalter and R.C.H. 281)
Invocation
Metrical Psalm cxxi, tune 65
Scripture Reading Prayer
Anthem, 0 how amiable are thy dwellings (West)
Prayer and The Lord's Prayer
Hymn, Be still, my soul (Psalter and R.C.H. 556) (first tune)
Address by the Right Rev. A. F.
MOODY, D.D., Moderator of the General Assembly
Hymn, Sun of my soul (Psalter and R.C.H. 292) (first tune)
Blessing
Organist, T. S. FORSTER