As a pianist, Edward Mitchell was best known for his interpretations of Russian piano music between the 1910s and the 1940s. After the First World War he became assistant organist at Westminster Cathedral. He taught at the Royal College of Music from 1921 until his death in 1950.
Mitchell held Scriabin in very high regard. His recitals of Scriabin often turned into lecture-recitals in order to make the challenging music more intelligible to the public. He also compiled a catalogue of Scriabin's piano music.
As a composer Mitchell's greatest success was the 13 minute long Fantasy Overture for orchestra with six horns, which was first performed in 1922. It won a Carnegie Trust award and was published as part of the Carnegie Collection of British Music.
Fantasy Overture - 1921
This is scored for a large orchestra and the Russian influence is ever present. At the head of the score resides this quote:
The music begins softly and darkly. The cellos present a phrase. with the desending minor 3rd motif at its end.
The horns repeat this minor third.
The music gathers momentum and builds to the first climax (fff) which is followed by a short staccato Allegro. A gentler more pastoral section features a duet for solo clarinet and horn. Any Russian influence is gone - this is more rendolent of an English pastoral rhapsody.
SAMPLE: Fantasy Overture - opening
The ending drives forward to an even greater climax with a number of fff markings and even a few at ffff; is this the Scriabin influence bursting forth? As the music subsides we hear that motif once again on the horns.
SAMPLE: Fantasy Overture - ending
The last known performance seems to have been in October 1924 by the BBC Station Orchestra, presumably a fore-runner of the BBC Symphony. It was an all Mitchell affair starting with his Spirit of Youth Overture and ending with this Fantasy Overture.
