Geoffrey Bush: Symphony No.1 (1954)

I listened to this fine symphony the other day. I had not heard it since I reviewer the Lyrita CD back in September 2006 for MusicWeb International. My opinion of the work has not changed since that time, so I present that part of my original review with only a few revisions.

1954 was a great year at the Cheltenham Festival. Concert-goers had a chance to hear several fine works – although I guess most are now forgotten. This blogpost is not a history of the Festival – but a ‘little list’ will not go amiss. Works heard included Alan Rawsthorne's String Quartet No.2, Peter Racine Fricker's Rapsodia Concertante, Alun Hoddinott’s Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra and Graham Whettam’s Concerto for Viola and Orchestra. There were also two symphonies of considerable note. One of them is Geoffrey Bush’s First but the other is also sadly neglected today – Stanley Bate’s Symphony No.3.

The review of this latter work in the Yorkshire Post was typical – ‘the most striking modern orchestral work we have heard this week.’ This work was released on Dutton Epoch CDLX 7239 in 2010.

But ‘Back to Bush...’

His Symphony No. 1 took over two years to compose. Bush writes that it was ‘a slow and laborious process.’ Much time was spent writing and rewriting the music before he felt it was complete.

The First Symphony resides in a totally different sound-world to that of the earlier Yorick Overture. Yet as a contemporary reviewer remarked, ‘[It is] a sane work that refrained from making heavy weather with modern anxieties.’ (The Times 9 July 1954)

The Symphony opens darkly and ominously but it is this initial theme that provides most of the material for the remainder of the movement. The scoring is less ‘stark’ than other reviewers have suggested, but the fact remains that this is no ‘pastoral’ or ‘post romantic’ exercise. Yet, there are plenty of lovely tunes and phrases tossed around the orchestra. In many ways, the first movement is a ‘discourse on a lively theme.’

The slow movement is the heart of the work. Written as a memorial to Constant Lambert, Bush calls it an ‘elegiac blues’ - obviously after the eponymous piano piece by the older composer. After a well-balanced first section and an impressive build-up we hear a quotation from Lambert’s great choral work Rio Grande. This movement is a lovely, moving tribute to a man who was a great pioneer amongst 20th century composers in exploring the possibilities of jazz and ‘modern’ dance music.

The last movement has all the hallmarks of an Italian Comedy – or at least so the composer tells us. There are definite references back to the opening bars of the symphony – but I do not think that Bush means the work to be cyclic. The beauty of this movement is the way the composer utilises the traditional symphonic exposition of two contrasting subjects, however at the point when we expect the development to begin the composer surprises us with a third theme. Soon the work is rushing to its conclusion and the work ends in ‘a blaze of D major.’ There is no doubt that rhythmic exhilaration is the key to this last movement.

Contemporary reviewers were impressed by this work. But perhaps the greatest compliment was that it is ‘a true and honest representation of its composer without any self-conscious striving for the grandiose or for novelty for its own sake.’ There can be nothing better said about any composition – especially a symphony. Furthermore, I was struck by the sheer craftsmanship of this work – the orchestration and the balance and the unity of this piece give it an extremely satisfying air. This First Symphony is not a major twentieth century masterpiece, but it is a great work that does not deserve the neglect it has had over the past fifty years or so.

Geoffrey Bush’s Symphony No. 1 can be heard on Lyrita SRCD 252. It is coupled with the Overture: Yorick (1949), the Music for Orchestra (1967) and the Symphony No.2 The Guildford (1957). It has been uploaded to YouTube (accessed 5 December 2018)