Frederic Austin - English Recital and Drama

English Recital and Drama

In the spring of 1912 was the first series of the Balfour Gardiner Queen's Hall Concerts, devoted to contemporary English music, which effectually transformed the acceptance and establishment of the English composers. In the fourth concert Austin sang Scott's Helen of Kirconnell again, and gave the premiere of Norman O’Neill's La belle dame sans merci. His symphonic Rhapsody: Spring was also repeated, and in March 1913 his Symphony in E was first performed. In 1912 Austin delivered his own Three Songs of Unrest, and gave a serious lecture on the songs of Hugo Wolf. Before the War he was also singing in Germany, Holland and Denmark. In 1914 at The Music Club in London he performed several songs of Arnold Schoenberg in the composer's presence. Roger Quilter dedicated his song The Jocund Dance (Op. 18 No. 3) to him, written 1913–14.

From 1913 Austin developed close connections with Rutland Boughton, and assisted in the development of the English music drama at Glastonbury. In the Summer Festivals of August 1914 and 1915 he sang the role of Eochaidh the King in The Immortal Hour there, and again at Bournemouth in 1915, with Frank Mullings and Percy Heming, and in 1916 was King Arthur in The Round Table. 1916 also saw the first performance of his most lasting orchestral composition, Danish Sketches, Palsgaard, conducted by Beecham on 11 December for the Royal Philharmonic Society.