New Works by Berkeley and Arnold.
lon those who spend the rest of the year listening to music in the Festival Hall a return to the Albert Hall is bewildering; and any composer whose work has a first hearing there can legitimately claim that no final judgment be passed upon it. When music had no "alternative accommodation" and all new works were heard in the same acoustically disastrous conditions, it was a different matter. Now that the listener's ears are accustomed to better hearing, it is difficult to apportion the blame for the odd sounds that reach his ears in the Albert Hall among composer, players and building. Composers whose music is subtle in texture and relies for much , its effect on delicate balance of timbres are particularly heavily Penalised; and Lennox Berkeley's new flute concerto suffered, I suspect, very severely. Quite apart from the gross imperfections of the hall it seemed a mistake to play a work scored for only two oboes, two bassoons, two horns and timpani with so large a body of strings. The effect, whatever the reason, was of considerable confusion, a notable absence of Berkeley's fastidious clarity of texture and design, at least in the first and last movements. The scherzo, and Ow movement, more lightly orchestrated, were much more success- ful ' and although the fast passage-work in the scherzo lost its brilliance in the re-echoing vaults of the hall, the nobly elegant lyrical inspiration of the adagio defeated all obstacles and confirmed my suspicion that the whole work was, in all probability, much better than it was sounding on this occasion. Here, in the adagio, walked the spirit of a more reserved, less expansive Faure, in modern dress but derogating in no way from the old aristocratic distinction. John Francis, for whom the work was written, played with fine musical feeling and a nice sense of phrase and tone-colour, although the solo part did (as I have said) suffer from the idiosyncrasies of the hill, the excessiveness of the strings or some occasionally ill-con- sidered orchestration—or all three. Sir Malcolm Sargent conducted\ the B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra. Malcolm Arnold's concerto for pianoforte duet and strings was given two nights later by the L.S.O., with Basil Cameron conducting and the solo part played by Helen Pyke and Paul Hamburger, for Whom the work was written. This is a difficult piece—to play, ncit to listen to—and would benefit only a little less than Berkeley's by being heard in the acoustically purer air of the Festival Hall. Arnold gives full rein to the familiar high spirits, for which much of his music is noted, in the last movement; but he explores a much more complex and intimate world in the first two. The opening Allegro is a mysterious, atmospheric movement yet solidly con- structed and well laid out for the instruments. The Larghetto which follows is one of Arnold's most serious and deeply-felt movements. The allegretto episode or variation of the main passacaglia theme forms a most poetical contrast, though organically connected, to the rest of the movement and is particularly effectively scored.
MARTIN COOPER.
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