Doreen Carwithen’s
Overture: Bishop Rock was first heard on Monday 14 July during the 1952
season of Promenade Concerts at the Town Hall in Birmingham. The City of
Birmingham Orchestra was conducted by Rudolf Schwarz. Other music heard at this
concert included Camille Saint-Saens’ Symphonic Tone Poem, Le Rouet
d'Omphale (Omphale’s Spinning Wheel), Johannes Brahms’s Symphony
No.4 in E minor and Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor, op.16. The piano
soloist was the Russian pianist Shulamith Shafir.
I was able to
find two reviews of this concert in the newspapers. R.R. writing in the Birmingham
Daily Gazette (15 July 1952) reminded readers that Doreen Carwithen’s
Overture: ODTAA (One damned thing after another!), ‘suggested by John
Masefield’s eponymous novel had been previously heard in the Birmingham Town
Hall (Thursday 29 January 1948). This critic considered that the Overture:
Bishop Rock was ‘more mature and much richer [than ODTAA]…’ Noting the work
was inspired by the famous bastion lighthouse on the furthermost (sic) point of
England that the musical impression required a very large orchestra, which the
composer ‘uses…well.’ He felt that the ‘taut, brassy ejaculations conjure
visions of the thundering Atlantic and gentle interplay between strings and
woodwind show us the surging sea in one of its few softer moods.’ The reviewer
concluded by saying that ‘the work is vivid and descriptive yet framed within
the discipline of satisfying musical form.’ The new work was given a ‘sterling
performance by Rudolf Schwarz and the orchestra with ‘generous applause’ from a
large audience received by the ’30-year old composer who took her bow from the
lower gallery.
The critic in The
Stage (24 July 1952) gave a long and reasoned review of the new Overture.
It is worth quoting extensively: ‘When the same composer’s overture, ‘ODTAA,’…
was played here four seasons ago one sensed the clear-cut craftsmanship of a
young composer who had something interesting to say. Bishop Rock is a more
ambitious work and contains the kind of progressive development one likes to
find in new composers. Scored for a large orchestra, the music is a vivid and
original depiction of the surging swell of the usually angry Atlantic at this
bastion outpost of far Western England. Though primarily pictorial, with bold
brass writing for the sea in mighty mood, and quiet cross-reference between
strings and woodwind for those irregular moments of calm, the work is well
shaped musically. The orchestra played with vigour and appreciation for scoring
that is well laid out for the considerable forces it employs.’
In 1997 Chandos
Records released a retrospective CD of Carwithen’ music (CHAN 9524, rereleased in
2006 on CHAN 10365X). This included the above-mentioned Overture ODTAA (One
Damn Thing After Another) (1945), the Concerto for piano and strings (1948),
the Suffolk Suite: Prelude, Orford Ness,
Suffolk Morris, Framlingham Castle (1964) as well as the Overture: Bishops’
Rock (1952). All four pieces were Premiere Performances. The London
Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Richard Hickox and the piano soloist was
Howard Shelley. Only the Piano Concerto has been given a further recording on SOMMCD254.
Guy Rickards (Tempo,
October 2009) reviewing this CD felt that ‘the two overtures, ODTAA and Bishop
Rock…are more workaday [than the Piano Concerto] but still exhibit the same
high degree of craftsmanship. Bax and Walton come nearer the surface here,
particularly in the more rhetorical moments, but neither piece ever descends
into mere imitation.’
The
Gramophone (May 1997 was positive about this new CD. Edward Greenfield was
impressed by Doreen Carwithen’s vigorous and lyrical music, which was hidden
for many years as she ‘selflessly devoted herself instead to the music of her
husband.’ Greenfield notes that the Overture: Bishop Rock presents
‘a craggy sea-picture, vividly evocative, lashed by various syncopations.’ He
remarks that the main theme is ‘later transformed to show the sea in gentle but
menacing mood, with the cor anglais equally evocative.’
Finally, Hubert
Culot writing in the British Music Society Newsletter (no.74, June 1997)
considered that Bishop Rock was a ‘short colourful overture evoking the
furthermost English lighthouse.’ He felt that the ‘music vividly depicts the various
mood of the ocean surrounding it: at times agitated and menacing (a superb horn
tune), at times calmer (… solo violin and solo winds.’ The work concluded ‘in a
glorious blaze of sound with a powerful restatement of the ‘lighthouse’ theme.
As mentioned earlier, Doreen Carwithen’s
seascape is on a par with several other examples, including
those by Bax and Mendelssohn. It deserves to be encountered in the concert hall
on a regular basis. And probably demands at least another recording. The only
one made so far, is more than 20 years old.
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