Webern, the BBC and the Berg Violin Concerto

The simplistic commentator would sometimes have it that, compared to elsewhere in Europe, British music–making between the wars was insular and inward–looking. This is not strictly true; and it very much depended on where you were. While in some quarters there was a strong conviction of the superiority of the British music that had emerged since Elgar, there was also widespread and increasing interest in what was happening on the Continent, as exemplified in the activities of Arthur Bliss, Eugene Goossens and later Constant Lambert and Frank Bridge, and the journalism of Havergal Brian. It was, of course, true that the new composers presented by the Diaghilev ballet attracted a wide following, not only for the brilliance of the ballets themselves but also for their high quality of orchestral performance, at a time when British orchestras were not renowned for their performance standards. Many British composers of the time were also performed abroad, far more than might now be realized, and the new music from Europe was heard in London. Particularly after the inception of the ISCM Festivals in 1922, with British musicians playing a leading role in their organization, an awareness of the latest trends in Europe was widely felt in UK musical circles — though certain idioms, particularly those of the Second Viennese School and some works of Bartók, would not become accepted by the wider public until the 1950s and 1960s. Throughout, Sir Henry Wood and Sir Adrian Boult, in particular, performed new music in all styles.