"Bax is a case of a sophisticated mind dealing with primitive material," wrote one critic after an early performance. Premièred in December 1922, the first symphony introduced a new Bax to the audience - a very different one from the composer of the masterfully orchestrated tone poems and chamber music they had been used to. Here was a piece of dark hues, of poignancy and barbarism, of harsh brass dissonance and a driving, rhythmic pulse which seems to forecast the coming of Shostakovich, whose own first symphony would follow three years later.

First of the seven such works which would dominate the rest of his output, the First Symphony is full of the contrasts and inconsistencies which mark the man and composer. It was not written as a symphony but as a piano sonata (the third) - it was his companion Harriet Cohen who suggested it was symphonic in form. Despite popular belief at the time, it was not a 'war' symphony. Denying publicly that it had any program, he expressed himself differently in private, allowing that its terrible beauty was much inspired by the Easter Uprising of 1916 and the killing of his friend Padraig Pearse, among others. The composer describes it as a symphony in E flat, eschewing conventional practice by marking it neither major nor minor.

Completed in piano score in 1921 and fully orchestrated the following year, the First Symphony is dedicated to John Ireland, who said of it that it showed Bax's genius in full measure. Yet this is not 'English' music in the style of Ireland or Vaughan Williams. It shows distinctly Slavic characteristics in its brooding dark humors - music to a degree inspired by Sibelius, Rimsky-Korsakov and the 'enfant terrible' Stravinsky. But echoes of England shine through in every movement - an England of Holst rather than his more conventional contemporaries, perhaps. Although he had worked on two earlier symphonies, neither of which came to fruition, this is the first time Bax gave full orchestral rein to his new vision.

The harsh brutality of the first movement, the raw emotion of the slow movement and the driving rhythms of the finale combine to make a powerful impression on the listener. There are signs throughout the work of themes and techniques which will link the seven symphonies from a compositional perspective. In particular, the structurally austere nature of the piece is perhaps the first example of Bax trying to compensate for what critics had seen as an overly elaborate style in some of his previous works.

Critically acclaimed from the first, the First Symphony is a real turning point for Bax and is a work which stands apart from everything which had gone before. Despite the composer's description of himself as "...a brazen romantic..." this does not relate directly to other Romantic symphonies of the time. It does, however, allow us to view for the first time the wellspring of emotion and angst from which the future symphonies will emerge. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of Bax's First Symphony to an understanding of the composer himself and to twentieth century English music in general.

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