ARNOLD BAX

Cathaleen-ni-Hoolihan

I came upon W. B. Yeats ‘The Wanderings of (Isheen’ in /902, and in a moment the Cell within me stood revealed. So wrote Arnold Bax in his autobiography 'Farewell, My Youth' and in that one sentence encapsulates one of the great influences in his entire creative life. Bax attended The Royal Academy of Music from 1900 to 1905 and during that time was one of its great stars both as a virtuoso pianist and composer. Forming the backbone of Bax’s career as a composer are the sequence of seven towering symphonies and a dozen or so tone poems.

Cathaleen-ni-Hoolihan is the first of these, the title being no more nor less than a physical embodiment of the spirit and essence of Ireland. Its origin was as the slow movement of a string quartet and both versions are headed by a (mis) quotation from Yeats’s To Ireland in the Coming l’imes. Given that Bax, the mature composer, was to compose using the largest and most harmonically complex of musical palettes, this piece displays extraordinary control verging on restraint. Here is a composer who intuitively understands the orchestra, combining an impressionist use of texture with a directness of melodic line and dramatic thrust exhibiting maturity way beyond his years. That Bax thought highly of it is clear from the use he made of material from it right up to his masterly Third Symphony of 1929. However it had to wait until 1970 for its first performance whilst this evening is only its third or forth public performance in the century of its existence.

The Peterstield Orchestra is grateful to Mr Lewis Foreman acting on behalf of the Sir Arnold Bax Trust for giving permission for this evening’s performance and to the BBC Philharmonic for providing the performing materials free of charge.

Note by Nick Barnard