JAVS Spring 2020

Elgar’s third movement adagio has some similarities to the second movement of Forsyth as well. Both are in a slow triple meter and arch form. In Elgar, however, the music falls to a low B for its most climactic pitch while Forsyth instead climbs up to a high F. The final movements of each piece are both in a march-like duple meter.

Example 4. Dvořák, Violin Concerto, I, mm. 81–85.

that the “theme in the finale clearly aris[es] from the school of Dvořák.” 16 Rob Barnett also mentions that “the funereal andante has a Brucknerian darkness that also reminded [him] of the liturgical moments in Romeo and Juliet and the darker reflections of Fibich in his Third Symphony.” 17 This stylistic equivalence serves to squarely place this concerto in the Romantic period. Forsyth’s concerto has many structural similarities to the Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor (written in 1919 but also Late-Romantic in style). In the first movement, Forsyth’s concerto starts with big opening chords taken out of tempo that lead to a periodically accompanied cadenza before the orchestra introduces the first theme. The Elgar concerto does the same, but in a shorter time span. The second themes of each work are in a related major key, Elgar’s the parallel major, Forsyth’s the relative. Forsyth’s concerto only has three movements to Elgar’s four, but the development section of Forsyth’s first movement has a similar sixteenth note motion as in Elgar’s second movement (exs. 5–6).

Elgar’s concerto finishes with a return of the theme from the first movement, as Walton does in his 1927 Viola Concerto. Forsyth does not bring the initial theme back in the last movement which is perhaps one of the reasons why this movement was considered the “least successful of the three.” 18 Elgar and Forsyth ran in the same musical circles in England, in fact Forsyth on a few occasions criticized Elgar’s work (including in a book he co-authored on the history of music). 19 So it is likely that Elgar was familiar with Forsyth’s viola concerto when he wrote his cello concerto. It is possible that they both chose similar late-Romantic idioms for their works, but the similarities also may have been imitation, as the Forsyth concerto did premiere to great success.

From a Successful Premiere to Relative Obscurity

The premiere of the Forsyth concerto happened on September 12, 1903, the 19 th night of the 1903 Proms season. While it wasn’t played at the opening or closing nights of the Proms (usually the most advertised and

Example 5. Forsyth, Viola Concerto, I, mm. 162–166.

Example 6. Elgar, Cello Concerto, II, one measure after rehearsal 20.

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Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 36, No. 1, Spring 2020