Description
Matinées Musicales, Op.24 was commissioned in 1941 by the Director of the American Ballet Company, Lincoln Kirstein, as a companion piece to the immensely popular Soirées Musicales. Like Soirées Musicales, Matinées Musicales (Musical Mornings) is a suite of pieces based on themes by Rossini from his final opera Guillaume Tell, Les Soirées Musicales (a collection of ariettas and duets with piano accompaniment), and Gorgheggi e solfeggio (a book of wordless vocal studies).
There are five movements: an enjoyably cheeky March, a charming and slow Nocturne, a brisk Waltz, a Pantomime (featuring the oboe and bassoon) and an effervescent finale entitled Moto perpetuo.
Combined with Britten’s Soirées Musicales (arranged here for wind quintet) and Rossini’s overture to La Cenerentola (arranged here for wind quintet) as a finale this formed the ballet suite Divertimento.
