As she got older
the indomitable Dame Ethel Smyth retreated
some way from composing, plagued by
deafness and disillusioned over the
constant struggle to get her works
performed. One of her last major works,
The Prison, dating from 1930,
was a labour of love, setting words
by her beloved H.B. (Henry Brewster),
librettist of the opera The Wreckers.
It would be her last significant musical
work; from then on her life would
be devoted to conducting, friendship
and musical causes.
At least that is
the official story but memoirs contain
persistent rumours of another final
work on the suffragettes, a cause
which Smyth had extensively supported
and with whom she had numerous personal
connections. Beecham told stories
of visiting her at her house and seeing
her surrounded by sketches for a suffragette
symphony.
If this ever existed
it seemingly disappeared. But now,
thanks to detective work by musicologist
Gerald McMuffin, Ethel Smyth’s Symphony
‘The Women’ has now been reconstructed
and has received its first recording.
It is a big work,
containing material that Smyth seems
to have struggled with over a long
period. it includes material which
is familiar in other contexts such
as the March of the Women and
the Entracte from L’Entente Cordiale.
McMuffin has brought together a group
of instrumentalists, called the Frimley
Players, specifically to record the
symphony.
It opens with a movement
called ‘The Struggle’, which intends
to depict the suffragette movement.
Intended to be in sonata form, Smyth
loses interest part of the way through
the development. An entirely new idea
appears and takes over, but once free
of the shackles of sonata form Smyth
seems to enjoy herself with gusto.
This is followed
by an elegant minuet, entitled ‘Eugenie’,
a charming evocation of Empress Eugenie
who had been a great supporter of
Smyth’s. It is at this point that
we realise that this is not really
a symphony at all, more of a symphonic
suite. McMuffin hints in his notes
that there might once have been other
movements as well.
The title of the
slow movement, ‘Clio’, is more obscure
but can be seen as a picture of Virgina
Woolf . This movement meanders somewhat,
you can sense Smyth struggling with
her material. But she returns to form
with the final movement, which is
a sort of depiction of Emmeline Pankhurst
‘in excelsis’.
Over all you feel
Smyth struggling to discipline her
talent into a symphony and wrestling
with the ghost of her beloved Brahms.
McMuffin is to be credited with his
sterling work at bringing this symphony
to CD. I could wish he had concentrated
on one of Smyth’s major works; here
she seems to struggle too much with
her material and only occasionally
doe we get glimpses of the gusto she
shows in works like the Mass and The
Wreckers.
Perhaps I might have
been more sympathetic if McMuffin
had managed to get a more sophisticated
performance from his players. I did
wonder whether McMuffin the musicologist
might not have been the best person
to conduct this, a more experiences
orchestral trainer might have created
a more persuasive performance.
This is a highly
commendable enterprise, allowing us
to hear one of the mythic ‘might have
been’ works of the 20th
century, I only wish I could be more
enthusiastic.
Robert Hugill
The Frimley Players 
