Any discussion surrounding the merits of the greatest British composers of all time would be incomplete without the inclusion of Richard Arnell. Certainly when it comes to the greatest living British composers his name should, arguably, be at the very top.
Yet Arnell’s symphonic works, six in total, only represent a fraction of his total output during a long and remarkably varied career. His creativity extends to composing for ballet, stage productions, film scores for cinema, violin concertos, piano concertos, string quartets, vocal and chamber pieces, and, of course, orchestral work.
Richard ‘Tony’ Arnell was born on September 15, 1917, in the north London village of Hampstead. He studied at the Royal College of Music where he was taught by John Ireland, among others. In 1939, as war erupted across Europe, Arnell found himself stranded in New York having attended the World Fair there. He remained there until 1947 by which time he had secured a wider reputation in America than in his homeland.
Whilst in New York, Arnell was commissioned to write a cantata, The War God, to mark the opening of the United Nations building and to welcome Winston Churchill to the city. When he returned to London he taught music for over forty years at the Trinity College of Music.
In 1942 he composed the music for The Land, a documentary film for the US Department of Agriculture. As his reputation steadily grew, further work was commissioned. Arnell was by now highly regarded in the field of composition for ballet, most notably Punch And Child, which was recorded by Sir Thomas Beecham with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
In total Arnell composed six official symphonic pieces amid a vast list of noted work. This disc, released on the Con Brio Records label (CBR27452) from a performance conducted by Warren Cohen of the MusicaNova Orchestra, contains perhaps his most well known and loved pieces, his Symphony numbers 4 and 5.
Arnell’s symphonic pieces are in essence markedly different from each other. They all, however, contain structural elements which are specific to their creator. The notes that accompany this release include an excellent quote from conductor Warren Cohen. When he asked Arnell why each symphony was different from each other. The composer replied, ‘well that’s the point isn’t it?’.
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