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Sat Aug 1] serve as lunch as well. Then we wandered back to the hotel & after writing to the mater??? spent the evening quietly till dinner. We finished dinner "quam celeraine"??? & then made tracks for the Usher Hall. One Usher a brewer, left ???pound sign??? 1000,000 for a hall in which were to be given at popular prices. After 15 yrs search for a site the Hall has been build and a fine place it is. The inside is really beautiful. Even the chairs have mahogany frames with numbers inlaid in them! The thing we went to hear was an organ recital by a man called Dr Ross. (F.R.C.O.) The show began at 7.30 but we arrived late & heard only part of the Programme & vi2: - 4. Overture "Don Giovanni" Mozart Andante??? - Molto Allegro.
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[Sat. Aug. 1
"The overtures of Mozart can be played without any reference to the operas to which they are the Preludes. This overtures opens with a slow intro which is followed by a quick movement. the allegro is based on the usual two subjects and clever listeners will be able to recognise the Exposition where the two themes are clearly stated, the Development or unfolding of these themes and the Recapitulation or Repitition.
5. Toscata from Symphony No 5
No words can describe the extraordinary vigour of the moment??? motive in this Toscata. Starting as a kind of intro it leads to the main theme of the movement vi2. that in the pedals which runs through the piece like a Carto Ferno. The middle portion, played much more softly, contains some modification of the theme, with the motive always present, & after some excursions into other keys the music gradually gathers in power until with the climax the old Cantor's taken up both in pedals & maneals???.
Interval
6.* Overture "Flying Dutchman" Wagner
this is in a musical sense a synopsis of the whole opera. It opens with the rush of the storm and the them associated with the Dutchman. the storm partly subsides & we hear the singing of the maidens calling for someone to save the D. from his fate, followed by the distant call of sailors as they find the sails suddenly the "storm" motif is heard & is developed at considerable length, with the maiden's song rising & falling as it floats over the seething??? waves. The storm abates somewhat & the steer's??? man's song can be heard but it is only the herald of another outburst. the climax is reached as the phantom ship sinks into the midst of the whirlpool, & the forus??? of Senka??? & D. rise heavenwards to the victorious strains of the maiden's song.
7.* March of the Holy Grail "Parsival" Wagner. this march represents te solemn scene in the temple of the mountain of the Grail. the bell motive steals in the ear while P. slowly relives??? by the rocky paths,m & after he's disappeared the motive sinks into silence. We then hear an