Muscular Symphonist

Though his name is hardly known in the U.S., Peter Racine Fricker, 31, is touted in Great Britain as the most promising symphonist since aged (80) Ralph Vaughan Williams. The London found that Fricker's Symphony No. 1 "grips the ear and the imagination"; its report from Liverpool last year on Fricker's Second: "A marked evolution in his utterance and expression ... a striking freshness."

Last week, in Royal Festival Hall, Londoners got a chance to make up their own minds about Symphonist Fricker. To make sure Symphony No. 2 got a fair hearing, the London Symphony played it once before intermission, once after. A few souls struggled out before the second playing, but most agreed that Fricker was a very muscular symphonist indeed.

His work is melodic, though in the chromatic, odd-interval manner of Bartok. Fricker himself claims he can whistle any of his themes, and hopes his listeners can too: "Even if they'don't go away whistling [a theme],. I want them to be able to recognize it when it recurs." His pieces have solid form, and most of all, walk with confident steps--"no timid tinkerings," as one critic wrote.

London-born Peter Pricker's career was partly shaped by his shortsighted eyes. At 14, he wanted to join the Royal Navy. Turned down, he took up music. He was accepted by the R.A.F. in World War II, however, and served in India.

Though his reputation is growing--his works have won high praise in Europe --his music brings him little income. He lives modestly in suburban Finchley with his wife Helen. He has not succumbed to the current craze of opera composing. "You always run the risk of all the squabbles [in the theater]." Anyway, "it's more unusual not to have written an opera [these days]."

The U.S. may hear its first Fricker composition played by famed Violist William Primrose. Fricker is composing a viola concerto which Primrose hopes to bring to the U.S. Fricker has one amending reservation: "[Primrose] will play it if it's any good."

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