The Daily Mail (10 June 1946) reported on the success of their rival
newspaper’s Victory Symphony competition. Ralph Hill insisted that the paper
has to be congratulated on its success in bringing to ‘the notice of the musical
public two gifted young composers, Cedric Thorpe Davie and Bernard Stevens.’
Thorpe Davies’ Symphony in C major
and Stevens’ 'A Symphony of Liberation’ were given their premiere performances by
the London Philharmonic under the baton of Constant Lambert and Dr Malcolm
Sargent respectively at the Royal Albert Hall on Friday evening.
Hill considered that ‘both
symphonies show skillful craftsmanship in their construction and orchestration,
an individual and expressive melodic sense, and a wide range that is free from
eccentricity.’
He finishes his review by
suggesting that Stevens’ symphony ‘is undoubtedly the more important work on
account of the greater imagination displayed in its construction and
treatment.’ He will regard the future of
these two composers ‘with interest.’
An unsigned review in The Times (10 June 1946) explained that
both symphonies were in three movements and both were ‘compact in form.’ Cedric
Thorpe Davie had made use of the traditional central slow movement between two
allegros, whereas Stevens has a ‘more definite programme [with] his movements
entitled ‘Enslavement’, ‘Resistance’ and ‘Liberation’ respectively.’ This
allows the composer to work from ‘darkness to light, placing his slow movement
first.’ The reviewer thinks that both
works ‘contain effective music, especially Davie’s funeral dirge and Steven’s
scherzo.’ In his opinion both finales
proved to be the weakest parts of each work. He writes, ‘one relied on popular
themes to represent the construction of the brave new world: the other sought
to express joy in liberation in a fugal movement, which unhappily disintegrated
halfway through, owing, one suspects, to ineffective orchestration.’
He concludes the review by
suggesting that ‘what was lacking in both was a great tune that would have
provided a true climax embodying our joy and thankfulness and resolution.’ I am
glad that neither composer did compose a popular tune: there would be plenty of
time in the future for Malcolm Arnold to oblige in this direction.
Both works were given fine
performances by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Constant Lambert
(Davie) and Dr Malcolm Sargent (Stevens).
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