Monday 29 October 2018

Arnold Bax: Donald Brook’s Pen-Portrait from 'Composer's Gallery' Part II


The second half of this pen portrait of Arnold Bax contains several performance dates and a list of orchestral works which Brook thinks demands the concertgoer’s attention. I have lightly annotated the text.

‘[Bax’s] Symphony No. 1 was first performed in London on December 4th, 1922 by Albert Coates and was described by Nicolas Slonimsky as ‘a work of gloomy introspection with overtones of mystical contemplation.’ [1] It was also performed at the Festival held by the International Society for Contemporary Music in Prague in the summer of 1924. The same Society's Supplementary Festival at Salzburg two months later gave the critics their first opportunity of hearing Bax's Viola Sonata. [2]
The premiere of his Second Symphony took place in America on December 19th, 1929 when it was played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Koussevitzky. [3] Writing to Philip Hale about it, Bax said that it should be ‘very broad indeed, with a kind of oppressive catastrophic mood.’ [4]
The sombre Third Symphony followed on March 14th, 1930 under the conductorship of Sir Henry Wood; the Fourth Symphony was first performed by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under Basil Cameron on March 16th, 1932; the Fifth received its initial performance by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Thomas Beecham on January 15th, 1934; and the Sixth, dedicated to Sir Adrian Boult, was first heard at a [Royal] Philharmonic [Society] Concert conducted by Sir Hamilton Harty on November 21st, 1935. Sir Arnold's Seventh Symphony, the last up to the time of writing, was conducted by Sir Adrian Boult at the New York World's Fair in 1939 and first heard in England on June 21st, 1940. [5]
One of Bax's latest works is his String Quartet in G, which possesses a very beautiful slow movement. [6]
In recent years he has also written occasionally for the films. His most popular works are the symphonic poem The Garden of Fand, and that fascinating orchestral work Tintagel, [7] but I have good reason for believing that in the years to come we shall hear more frequent performances of many of his other compositions for the orchestra, including the Overture to Adventure, Overture to a Picaresque Comedy, Rogues' Comedy Overture, Summer Music, The Happy Forest, The Tale the Pine Trees Knew, Two Northern Ballads, the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, and London Pageant, a march and trio dedicated to the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and written for the Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. [8]

Sir Arnold's chamber music is also of considerable importance, and his compositions for the piano, despite the difficulty of most of them, appeal strongly to those who can play them, because of their richness in colour.
Bax is undoubtedly a master of melody and intricate rhythm, but his works demand very close attention. His symphonies even more than his other orchestral works are proof of their creator's brilliant technique and remarkable creative power. Robin Hull says of them:
‘The meditative, deeply penetrating character of Bax's invention ranges from the starkest ferocity to idyllic enchantment. His wealth of romantic beauty is interwoven with much keener austerities and tinged by more remorseless sentiments than any usually associated with romance. He reveals an incomparable mastery of orchestral colour in music which strikes to a depth unattainable by impressionism . . . The nature of his strongly individual style, which attempts no compromise with past or present fashions, receives scant illumination by direct contrast with that of other composers; nor can his mature works be profitably compared with any except those which he himself has written.’ [9]

Owing to its complexity of structure and rhythm, Bax's work is often difficult to appreciate on its first hearing. It is unrestrained and yet refined, and more often than not we find that he has deliberately chosen to depict the more sombre aspects of life. Sir Arnold wrote an article in Musical America some years ago in which he confessed that he was a ‘brazen romantic’ and explained that by this he meant that his music was ‘the expression of emotional states.’ He added that he was not interested ‘in sound for its own sake or in any modernist "isms" or factions.’ [10]
He is of a quiet and retiring nature and prefers to live unobtrusively in a little Sussex village not very far from London. [11]
His brother, Clifford Bax, [12] is the well-known poet and dramatist, by the way. Sir Arnold was knighted in 1937, and four years later became Master of the King's Music after the death of Sir Watford Davies. He has received honorary degrees of Doctor of Music from the Universities of Oxford (1934) and Durham (1935).'

Notes:
[1] Nicolas Slonimsky (1894-1995) a Russian-born American conductor, author, pianist, composer and lexicographer. As can be seen, he died aged 101 years. I was unable to find the source of this quotation.
[2] Not sure of the exact date of the Prague performance, but between 31 May and 2 June 1924. Probably 1 June. Fritz Reiner conducted the Festival Orchestra. The Viola Sonata was performed by Lionel Tertis, viola and Harriet Cohen, piano at Salzburg on 6 August 1924.
[3] Actually 13 December 1929. It was given another performance on the following day.
[4] Philip Hale (1854-1934) was an American Music Critic.
[5] Bax’s Seventh Symphony was premiered at the Carnegie Hall, New York on 9 June 1939. Sir Adrian Boult conducted the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. The British premiere was at the Colston Hall, Bristol on 21 June 1940. Sir Adrian conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra. It was indeed Bax’s final symphony.
[6] I am not sure what Donald Brooks is driving at here. The String Quartet in G major was composed in 1918, some 28 years before this book was published. Even the String Quartet No.3 in F major was first heard in 1936. 
[7] There are 18 recordings of Tintagel and 8 of The Garden of Fand currently in the Arkiv Music CD catalogue, so they have retained their popularity, some 72 year on. However, both these works are rarely given a live performance. As to Donald Brook’s other ‘recommendations’ none have gained a foothold in the repertoire, though all have received at least a single recording.
[8] Bax’s Coronation March (1952) was his last orchestral work. It incorporated music featured in the film Malta GC.
[9] Robin Hull: ‘Approach to Bax’s Symphonies’ Music & Letters April 1942
[10] Musical America 7 July 1928, p.9. This has been reprinted in Farewell my Youth and other writings, ed. Lewis Foreman, Scolar Press, 1992.
[11] At the time of Donald Brook writing his Composer’s Gallery (1946), Arnold Bax was living at The White Horse Hotel, Storrington, Sussex.
[12] Clifford Bax (1886-1962) was an English author, playwright, journalist, critic and editor, a poet, lyricist and hymn writer.


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