Scherzo Symphonique

Henry Litolff's engaging Scherzo, taken from his Fourth Symphonic Concerto, used to be very popular as an encore or "pot-boiler" in concert halls throughout the country in the 1960s and 70s. Recently two enthusiastic Friends of the Norfolk Symphony Orchestra, Richard and Kay Heath of Pinchbeck, renewed my acquaintance with this delightful music after they had heard it on Classic FM. It seemed an ideal foil to the "Rach/Pag Variations" and who better to perform it than our beloved Liza Kopelman? It is rather sad that a composer is known almost solely by one work. After all, if he could write something this good, there must be lots more in the same vein. Thus, if you are as captivated by this music as our good friends were, might I recommend a CD containing two of Litolff's Symphonic Concertos played in dashing style by Peter Donohoe with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Litton (Hyperion CDA66889).

If ever a musician lived the "Romantic" ideal to the full it was Henry Litolff. His father, Martin Litolff, taken prisoner by the English during the Peninsular War, settled in London where he married a Scotswoman, Sophie Hayes. Young Henry's first major escapade occurred at the age of seventeen when he eloped to Gretna Green to marry the sixteen-year-old Elisabeth Hetherington, whisking her off to live in France. Four years later he was separated from his wife and, hoping to divorce her, returned to England only to be fined and imprisoned. However, with the aid of the gaoler's daughter, he escaped to the Netherlands to continue his career as a pianist and composer. In 1849, having moved on to Germany where he became a citizen of Brunswick, he finally succeeded with his divorce. Two years later he married the wife of his recently deceased friend Gottfried Meyer, took over Meyer's publishing company and changed its name to Henry Litolff's Verlag. He transformed the musical life of Brunswick with a series of festivals attracting such eminent musicians as Berlioz, Liszt, Hans von Bulow and Anton Rubenstein. In 1858 he divorced his second wife and settled in Paris for the rest of his life to concentrate on composing and conducting. In 1860 he was back at the altar to marry into the French aristocracy. After the death of his third wife in 1873 and in poor health - he had always been prone to a nervous disorder - he married his seventeen year-old nurse.

These tantalising glimpses of an eventful life make one wish for a good, juicy drama-documentary to reveal the detail. The plot seems good, certainly plenty of feminine interest, and the accompanying music would be excellent. Any takers?