Relayed from the Wigmore Hall
An Established Work:
LEON GOOSSENS and the VIRTUOSO QUARTET
Quintet for Oboe and Strings
ARNOLD BAX (born 1883), one of the foremost present-day composers, was trained at the Royal Academy of Music, studying composition under Frederick Corder. His music was first heard in public in 1903, and since then he has written many large Choral, Orchestral and Chamber works, besides Piano pieces and many subtle and fragrant songs, in which there is often a wistful tenderness. He has a Celtic strain in him, and so it is not surprising that ho has given us some sensitive and charming expressions of moods both in keyboard music and in songs.
The Quintet, dedicated to Leon Goossens, is in three Movements. The First has a prelude in moderate time, in which the Oboe has a little cadenza of an improvisatory nature. This opening portion works up to an impassioned climax, and then the Oboe, with a flight aloft, leads in the quick portion of the Movement, which is quite short and very vigorous at the start, though it ends in tranquil mood, extremely softly.
The Second Movement, slow and expressive, opens in alternate bars of four and three beats. Then the Oboe has a little cadenza, and the Viola brings in a theme of grave sweetness, which is discussed by the other instruments. The theme of the first section returns, and the Movement dies away with an echo of the second theme.
The Last Movement runs gaily along in jig-like fashion, until a slower section is reached, in which the 'Cello has a leading tune. The lively pace is resumed, and the jig-tune returns, to be interrupted twice by slower interludes of a few bars' length, before, in a final whirl, it dashes home.