The Thompson piece is in fact "The Last Words of David", commissioned for the 25th anniversary of Koussevitzky's music directorship of the BSO, and the film closes with its world premiere, 12 August 1949 [information from the published score]. I believe this concert would have been his last as Music Director.
Wonderful piece, the only time I've heard it live with orchestra was at a concert at Harvard honoring the composer's 65th birthday, although judging from YouTube there are numerous performances with organ as well as with orchestra at the college and high school level. This 1949 film in its English-language version has surfaced from time to time on the Internet, I can't seem to find it now. It's quite a nostalgia trip for me; I was a counterpoint and fugue student of Thompson as an undergraduate at Harvard, was in the conductor's class at Tanglewood in 1961 and 1962, and studied privately with the concertmaster/associate conductor at that time, Richard Burgin. Quite an "Egmont"! jl _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
