from the Free Trade Hall,
Manchester
The Halle Orchestra
Leader, Alfred Barker
Conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham , Bart.
Part 1
Dvorak's Symphonic Variations were originally composed in 1877 and numbered Op. 40, then were apparently forgotten for ten years even by the composer himself. They were resuscitated and revised in 1887 and sent to Richter, who produced them in London in May of that year.
The variations-twenty-eight in number-are essentially melodic (like Elgar's ' Enigma '), not harmonic-structural variations on the lines of Beethoven's greatest sets and those of Brahms-a fact that did not in the least interfere with Brahms's admiration of this Dvorak work.