Promenade Concert British Novelties for 1920 Part 1

The list of British Promenade Concert Novelties is one that appeals to the specialist. There is nothing here that has caught the imagination of the average music lover. Even amongst enthusiasts of British music there will be one of two composers who are but a name. Few of these works have retained even a toehold in the repertoire of orchestras professional and amateur:

• Arnold Bax: Symphonic Variations in E for piano and orchestra
• York Bowen: Concerto in E minor for violin and orchestra
• Eric Fogg: Suite from the ballet ‘The Golden Butterfly’
• Cecil Armstrong Gibbs: Suite for orchestra ‘Crossings’
• Eugene Goossens: Symphonic Poem ‘The Eternal Rhythm’
• Herbert Howells: Merry Eye for orchestra
• Frederick Laurence: ‘The Dance of the Witch Girl’ for orchestra
• Montague Phillips: Piano Concerto No.2 in E for piano and orchestra
• Landon Ronald: Orchestral Suite ‘The Garden of Allah.’

To my knowledge seven of the nine pieces listed have been recorded at least once.  The Landon Ronald would appear to exist only in an early acoustic recording made at the work’s premiere at the Royal Albert Hall during the Prom Season.

Arnold Bax’s Symphonic Variations in E for piano and orchestra is a major work by any standards. This massive piece lasts for nearly 50 minutes. It was completed during 1916 and was dedicated to Bax’s mistress, the pianist Harriet Cohen.  The structure of the work develops the thoughts and actions of an almost Nietzschean super-hero who may be a legendary character or possibly the composer himself. It could be argued that it is a love-poem to Harriet, or maybe a reflection of the Bax’s emotions. The entire work is based in two themes, first presented in the introduction which are subject to widely ranging variation. The titles of each part are given picturesque titles: Youth - Nocturne - Strife - The Temple - Scherzo (Play) - Intermezzo (Enchantment) - Triumph.

Of all the novelties, this set of Symphonic Variations has been the most discussed in subsequent years and has had three recordings made. These are, chronologically, Joyce Hatto with the Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra with Vernon Handley (CONCERT ARTIST CACD-9021-2), Margaret Fingerhut and the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Bryden Thomson (Chandos CHAN8516) and Ashley Wass accompanied by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Judd (Naxos 8.570774).

Although I am a Bax enthusiast, I have never come to terms with the Symphonic Variations. I find that it is a rambling piece with material that (for me) does not support its considerable duration. That said, the work is full of sensuous and magical passages so typical of the composer. I will try to listen to it again over the coming days or weeks.

Eric Fogg was born in Manchester in 1903. After serving as a chorister at the Cathedral he became organist at St John’s, Deansgate (now demolished). His first musical lessons were with his father, after which he went to Birmingham to study with Granville Bantock.  As a young man he was precocious and industrious and had reached his Op. 57 before he turned eighteen. Interestingly, he won the 1919 Cobbett prize with a long-forgotten Dance Fantasy for Piano and Strings.

In 1924 Fogg was working for the BBC in Manchester as a pianist and he subsequently became one of the ‘uncles’ for Children’s Hour.  He was involved in music making at all levels in his native city. Fogg was friends with the redoubtable Mancunian Walter Carroll who was a great educator as well as competent composer. In 1934 Fogg moved to London to take up an appointment as director of the BBC Empire Orchestra. Eric Fogg was tragically killed by a London Underground train in 1939: an open verdict was returned.

Virtually none of Eric Fogg’s music is played today. There was a revival (BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and the Leeds Choral Society 25 March 2006) of his major choral work The Seasons which was successful. The Bassoon Concerto (ASV CD WHL 2132) is in its own way a minor revelation yet, considering the paucity of concerted works for this instrument, it has not become a regular feature in the concert hall. Two short tone-poems for orchestra have been recorded: Sea Sheen and Merok. (Dutton Epoch CDLX 7196).

Eric Fogg’s ballet Suite: The Golden Butterfly has long disappeared from the repertoire. It was premiered at the Proms on Tuesday 21 September 1920 with the seventeen-year-old composer conducting. It served to introduce the public to his music. The work was heard again at during the 1924 Proms season.

The work is a concert version of a ballet with libretto devised by Leigh Henry. The story is based on an old Chinese legend about an ambitious butterfly who ‘is dissatisfied with his own station [and] choses to go forth into the world’. The ballet visually describes the various adventures that befall. I was unable to ascertain whether this work was ever performed as a ballet.

Reviewers of the Suite were typically impressed, although some noted ‘certain flaws’ including the repetition of whole passages which are not striking enough to deserve it.’ The Manchester Guardian 22 September (1920). Many felt that the 17-year-old Fogg had a lot to learn.

The thing that makes this work of some interest today is the critical suggestion that some of this music nodded towards Stravinsky and Ravel. Apparently, Fogg presented ‘an easy command of modern idioms and the [remarkable] handling of the various classes of instruments.’

To be continued…