It is a minor scandal that Doreen Carwithen is better known as the wife of William Alwyn rather than as a gifted composer in her own right.
Actually, gifted is an understatement, for in her Piano Concerto (1948) she creates a lush, idiomatic and idiosyncratic romantic score that deserves regular concert performances today. Think Rachmaninov and Vaughan Williams and you come close to her style here. Listen to her String Quartets and Piano Sonatina, however, and you hear a real ‘modernist’ composer of her times…..
Doreen Carwithen – a composer for today.
