Arnold Bax: Romantic Overture (1926) Part 2

The Romantic Overture was first performed at the New Chenil Galleries in the King’s Road, Chelsea, London on 18 January 1927. The then-young John Barbirolli (1899-1970) conducted the Chenil Chamber Orchestra and Rae Robertson played the ‘concertante’ piano part.

Fortunately, there is a sequence of letters that Bax sent to Harriet Cohen, describing his reaction both before and after the premiere of the work. I am grateful to Graham Parlett for permission to quote them here.

In a letter to Cohen (10 January 1927), Bax wrote: ‘My overture for small orchestra is being played (and broadcasted) by Barbirolli on Tuesday week at the Chenil Galleries—only one rehearsal—so it can’t be good especially as it is pretty complex.’

A few days later (14 January 1926), Bax was still troubled about the work’s prospects: ‘Barbirolli is doing my piece with only one full rehearsal - the usual bestial conditions of course - and what it will be like I can’t think. I certainly don’t want it broadcast at the first performance.’

But on 18 January, despite some sad news, he was much more optimistic: ‘I have just heard from mother that Señor Sobrino [his father-in-law, the Spanish pianist Carlos Sobrino] died to-day of cancer…Barbirolli rehearsed my piece the whole morning and let everything else in the programme go to the devil with the result that it really sounds what I mean. One is so unaccustomed to any trouble or real enthusiasm on the part of a conductor here that it is quite moving. I wish you could hear it. (Rae [Robertson] is playing the piano part.)’

On 19 January, Bax wrote enthusiastically about the concert: ‘My Romantic Overture went brilliantly last night, and Barbirolli really accomplished something quite wonderful with it. Old Vaughan Williams was there of course but I did not see him to speak to. I wish you could have heard it - especially as (since it is scored for a medium sized orchestra) there cannot be many opportunities for its performance.'

Finally, Graham Parlett (1999) cites a letter from Bax to fellow composer Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (21 January 1927) stating that ‘The performance was fine, and I think that if he remains as enthusiastic and conscientious as he is at present Barbirolli is going to be a very important figure in the conducting world’. It was a perception that was justified by time. On the same day, Bax also wrote to Cohen: ‘Everyone seems to have liked my orchestral piece the other night I am glad to say - That comes of a really good performance.’

The reviewer in the Musical Times (March 1927) of the premiere, regarded the Romantic Overture as ‘small and excellent’ just like the venue. He thought that ‘one title is as good as another, and Mr. Bax had never yet used this one.’ What impressed him most was the composer’s successful attempt as ‘dabbling with orchestral economy on the part of a usually spendthrift composer was a hopeful sign, for retrenchment is often a first symptom of maturity.’  He amusingly wrote that ‘we want Mr. Bax to mature and to sow oats a little less wildly.’  The work was deemed to be typical Bax, despite not alluding to any actual Irish tune. He understood that there was ‘live motion in melody, middle, bass, harmony and rhythm.’  The ‘gifted’ pianist Rae Robertson gave an effective performance of the piano part.

Other works heard at the concert included a very ‘slow-paced’ Delius On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, Mozart’s Symphony No.40 in G minor K550 and a Concerto Grosso by Handel.

The first provincial performance of the Romantic Overture was given during the 1927 ‘Hastings Music Festival’ at the White Rock Pavilion. On Thursday afternoon, April 7, Edward Elgar had been booked to conduct some of his orchestral works including ‘The Wand of Youth Suite No.2’ and the Violin Concerto with the solo part played by Miss Margaret Fairless in lieu of Albert Sammons who was ‘indisposed’. A premiere at the concert was Alexander Brent-Smith’s Barton Fair Overture which has disappeared into the mists of time.

Allan Biggs commenting on the Romantic Overture in the Hasting and St Leonards Observer (Saturday 9 April 1927) observed that Basil Cameron, the resident conductor, ‘extracted every ounce of musical significance that it possesses.’  He continued: ‘every player engaged in its performance has to be very much on the alert for it abounds in snatches of small talk between the instruments employed.’ The work, characterised by ‘…successions of unresolved discords suggests a somewhat distorted view of ‘romance’ and the broad impression is one of feverish energy rather than beauty per se.’ Biggs thought that there was an ‘abundant purpose in the themes, and no lack of originality in them or in the striking orchestral effects to which they gave rise.’ Basil Cameron gave a ‘masterly’ performance and had memorised the work.

The Musical Times (1 May 1927) reviewing the same concert pointed out that there is ‘much good music in Bax’s work- too much, in fact for it to hang together properly.’

The Recording

In January 1992 Chandos were running an advert for the latest CD in their series of Arnold Bax recordings. It was presented as a ‘unique release, featuring premier recordings.’ Included on this disc were the Violin Concerto, the incidental music to Clifford Bax’s play Golden Eagle, the tone-poem ‘Legend’ and the present overture. Unfortunately, M.K. (Michael Kennedy) did not choose to mention the work in his review of the CD in the April 1992 issue of The Gramophone magazine. This journal also appears to have been silent about the CD’s subsequent re-release in 2003.

Guy Rickards, reviewing the CD in Tempo (March 1992) states that the Romantic Overture is ‘…not-quite-concertante, not-quite-orchestral piano, [and] is a dud’. Rickards regards this failure as ironic as the work dates from ‘the middle of the composer's richest period.’  He believes that the work’s ‘longueurs [dull and tedious parts] fall just short of the early Festival Overture (1909-11) …’

The most extensive critique of this recording of the Romantic Overture is by Steve Arloff on the website MusicWeb International (4 April 2004). After a summary of the work’s genesis and a consideration of the Franck ‘quotation,’ he concludes by stating, ‘Whilst I’ve never been a particular fan of Delius, whose music seems to meander aimlessly rather than making a statement, this Bax piece is a delight and once again is teeming with ideas that are fully explored though it is a scant thirteen minutes in length’.

Finally, The American Record Guide (March 2004, Roger Hecht) comments that the Romantic Overture ‘is a pleasing combination of dance and an afternoon wandering around dedicatee Frederick Delius's house in France’. It may not reflect the true facts of the work’s origin, but it does sum up the effectiveness of the music.

Brief Bibliography
Foreman, Lewis, Bax: A Composer and his Times (The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1983, 1987, 2007)
Parlett, Graham, A Catalogue of the Works of Sir Arnold Bax (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1999)
Scott-Sutherland, Colin, Arnold Bax (London, J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd, 1973)

Discography:
Bryden Thomson/London Philharmonic Orchestra Romantic Overture, Concerto for violin and orchestra, A Legend: Symphonic Poem, Golden Eagle: Incidental Music, Chandos CD: CHAN 9003, 1991; rereleased on CHAN 10159, 2003.

With grateful thanks to the late Graham Parlett for permission to quote liberally from his research and for much help and encouragement in drafting this essay.

Concluded
With thanks to the Delius Society Journal where this essay was first published.