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The Places

South Tyrol, in Northern Italy, has had a varied history, for many years as part of Austrian territory. The region remains largely German-speaking, although both German and Italian are used. Looming over the territory are the mountains, the Dolomites, with their strange shapes, and the Alps, while the valleys provide fertile ground for the production of wine.

The Music

Music for the tour is taken from four Concerti grossi by Handel. Born in Halle in 1685, Handel had his first musical employment there and then in Hamburg, before moving in 1706 to Italy, where he remained until 1710, when he was appointed Kapellmeister to the Elector of Hanover. He travelled almost at once to London, where he had been engaged to compose an Italian opera, and from 1712 until his death in 1759 settled in England, winning fame first as a composer of Italian opera and then as the creator of English oratorio.

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The Places

Brittany and Normandy, in Northern France, have a character all their own, preserving, as they do, ancient Celtic traditions in a countryside bounded on one side by a rocky coast-line. The great Abbey of Mont St-Michel remains a centre of pilgrimage and secular interest, and in Normandy we catch glimpses of the Bayeux Tapestry, with its near contemporary record of William of Normandy’s successful expedition in 1066 to conquer England.

The Music

The music chosen for this tour of Northern France is the Organ Symphony of Camille Saint-Saëns, a work written in memory of Franz Liszt that takes its name from the use of the organ in its grandiose final movement. The other music to be heard is an orchestral version of the Belgian-born composer César Franck’s Prelude and Chorale, written two years earlier, in 1884, and the Romance in C major, Op. 48, of Saint-Saëns.

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The Places

The city of Nuremberg owes its importance partly to its geographical position, which made it a significant centre for trade. In spite of considerable war damage, its old medieval city, now restored, remains as a monument to its importance in the late Middle Ages. By the 16th century Nuremberg had become a centre of trade and of artistic activity. In art it could boast the presence of Albrecht Dürer and in poetry Hans Sachs and the Guild of Mastersingers, later to be celebrated by Wagner.

The Music

The son of Leopold Mozart, the Deputy Kapellmeister at the court of the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had grown up at the archiepiscopal court, to be employed there, like his father, in a childhood and early adolescence interrupted by long concert tours as an infant prodigy. He excelled as a pianist, but was also a proficient violinist, and two of the three Violin Sonatas included here date from years in which he tried briefly to escape from Salzburg and find employment elsewhere, with the third written in 1781, when he was first establishing himself in independence in Vienna, where he was to die ten years later.

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The Places

The Puppet Museum in Munich houses a remarkable display of puppets of all kinds, from string and hand puppets to the shadow puppets of China. Nuremberg, famous for its toys, has a Toy Museum, with exhibits ranging from the earliest times to the more nearly contemporary. From this collection we see a doll’s house, accurate in every detail, and some of the museum’s mechanical toys, in working order.

The Music

The tour is accompanied by a series of popular piano pieces, ranging from Mozart and Beethoven to Saint-Saëns and Debussy. Mozart’s Turkish March is followed by Beethoven’s so-called Rage over a Lost Penny. Included is a Chopin Waltz, a Mendelssohn Song Without Words and Tchaikovsky’s Chanson triste. The music ends with Liszt’s piano transcription of the Danse macabre of Saint-Saëns.

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