Doreen Carwithen’s lively concert opener Overture “ODTAA” appeared with the Gulbenkian Orchestra on 17 June, conducted by Clemens Schuldt. In 2025 the Overture has also been performed by Timothy Redmond and the London Symphony Orchestra and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra with Andrew Manze. The work also featured at the 2022 Last Night of the Proms, conducted by Dalia Stasevska.
Overture “ODTAA” was written when Carwithen was aged only 23 and premiered by Adrian Boult and the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1947. Its subtitle – ‘One Damn Thing After Another’ – is named for the 1926 novel by John Masefield, an adventure story set on a fictional island nation in Central America, in which the hero of the stories is caught up in various wild escapades and political intrigues with a vivid cast of characters.
Carwithen’s 8½-minute piece captures this questing atmosphere of derring-do and swashbuckling with rhythmic vitality and orchestral brilliance, the music driven forward by energetic interjections from the percussion, brilliant passagework for strings, and fanfares for the brass. In this respect the piece shares the vigour and pictorial sharpness of Carwithen’s film scores, several of which have been adapted into concert works – such as To the Public Danger and Men of Sherwood Forest. The Overture was recorded by Richard Hickox and the London Symphony Orchestra in 1997.
In her later years, Doreen Carwithen’s rich catalogue of works gained wider recognition. Her story is told in Leah Broad’s acclaimed recent study “Quartet”, published by Faber & Faber, alongside those of Ethel Smyth, Dorothy Howell and Rebecca Clarke. 10-13 July sees the 2nd annual Carwithen Music Festival take place at St Mary’s Church, Haddenham. The programme includes performances of her String Quartet No.1 (10 July) – from the Piatti String Quartet, the Violin Sonata from Fenella Humphreys and Nicola Eimar (also featuring Leah Broad), and the Sonatina for solo piano from Clare Hammond (13 July).