ABSTRACT
Organisations and institutions delight in celebrating significant anniversaries and everyone loves a party. It was ironic that just as Arnold finally gave up composition there should have been a massive resurgence of interest in his music, this coinciding with his seventieth birthday in 1991. Celebrating anniversaries can mean that there are a few concerts or recordings clustered around the ‘special day’ and then everyone forgets the composer again until another significant event. The major concert event of the 70th birthday year was the Arnold/Haydn Celebration, organised by Georgina Ivor and Piers Burton-Page. The festival provided a magnificent showcase for Arnold’s work, something granted to very few living composers. The works performed came from all periods in his life and from all genres. The birthday concerts were not limited to Manchester, but also saw Arnold as featured composer in Harrogate and Glasgow, and there were two South Bank concerts, both held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.
