Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Early Closing
- 2 The Music of Northampton
- 3 A Number of Scotsmen
- 4 Olive
- 5 Union and Exile
- 6 A Purpose for Cinema
- 7 A War of his Own
- 8 Is Your Journey Really Necessary?
- 9 A Coming British Woman Composer
- 10 Towards a Festival
- 11 Questions of Inspiration
- 13 The Late Romantic
- 14 E-Day
- 15 Symphonic Reflections
- 16 Soundless Music
- 17 The Other Suffolk Composer
- 18 The Blythburgh Operas
- 19 The Stillness
- 20 Living and Learning
- 21 Precious Toy
- Epilogue
- Notes
- List of Alwyn’s Works
- Discography
- Bibliography
- General Index
- Index of Alwyn’s Works
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Early Closing
- 2 The Music of Northampton
- 3 A Number of Scotsmen
- 4 Olive
- 5 Union and Exile
- 6 A Purpose for Cinema
- 7 A War of his Own
- 8 Is Your Journey Really Necessary?
- 9 A Coming British Woman Composer
- 10 Towards a Festival
- 11 Questions of Inspiration
- 13 The Late Romantic
- 14 E-Day
- 15 Symphonic Reflections
- 16 Soundless Music
- 17 The Other Suffolk Composer
- 18 The Blythburgh Operas
- 19 The Stillness
- 20 Living and Learning
- 21 Precious Toy
- Epilogue
- Notes
- List of Alwyn’s Works
- Discography
- Bibliography
- General Index
- Index of Alwyn’s Works
Summary
Alwyn’s Third Symphony had its premiere at the Royal Festival Hall on 10 October 1956. The BBC Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Beecham, who took over the project from the indisposed Barbirolli. Alwyn recalled that ‘Sir Thomas was punctilious in the preparation of the score and gave a remarkable performance full of fire and vitality. I accompanied him to the artists’ room after taking my bow. He looked old and exhausted, but his strange rabbity eyes were brightly sparkling as he lolled on the sofa and, with a characteristic stroking of the beard, he said: “They tell me I can’t conduct modern music. Well, this should learn them!” ’ Alwyn’s recollection of ‘the press unusually unanimous in approval’ is a little misleading. The critic Charles Reid, under the heading ‘An angry new symphony’ could not ‘put this forward as a great work. The final pages give it away. Alwyn’s attempts hereabouts to achieve a calm, broad apotheosis fall wide of the mark.’ Nevertheless, Reid thought, ‘I have never known a new English symphony, except Vaughan Williams’ No. 8, go by so quickly and on the whole so entertainingly. The music’s mood most of the time is brassy, brisk, brusque – even angry, in a winsome way.’ More positively, another newspaper reported that ‘Alwyn’s reputation will be enhanced by this […] for it is positive in feeling and cogent in argument.’
Percy Cater’s review noted
plenty of sound. The composer, albeit so mild and studious looking, does not stint himself on the brass and the percussion, or in what one takes to be the martial mood. The symphony certainly has strength and drama. Why is it that, with all the powerful sallies, the brass proclamations – which are somewhat overdone – and the colour, applied by Alwyn with technical skill, the work does not make more of an impact? I think that it is deficient in contrast. It has a sombre cast, of strife and contest in the opening movement and the finale, of a quieter solemnity in between. If Alwyn could have abandoned seriousness, or at least could have been less stern for a while, his symphony would have gained in effect.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Innumerable DanceThe Life and Work of William Alwyn, pp. 164 - 178Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2008