The Portrait of a Lady was composed shortly after the Looking Glass Suite, and rewritten in 1924. Ernest Newman wrote of it in the “Post”:
“... he stood up like a man to Schubert, Juon and Novak; and at the end of the concert only he and Schubert had survived.”
Lawrence Gilman of the “Tribune” said:
“Out of the empty, agitated air he conjured an image that had line and color and background, substance and character; something coherent, vivid, personal. And when he was through ... we found ourselves richer by an experience and a possession, and wondering, as we never fail to do, at the mysterious potency of the art of music.”
The work was composed for strings, wood-wind and piano, and, according to the composer, follows no definite program, but was designed to be “somewhat analogous to what a painter would call an ideal head; an attempt to convey the impression of a human personality in terms of music.” According to the music this personality has two phases: one grave, meditative and tender, the other capricious and somewhat worldly. The music has warmth and depth, and as W. J. Henderson wrote in the “Sun,” “makes one wish to see the woman.”
The incidental music to Beggar on Horseback included the delightful pantomime A Kiss in Xanadu, to a scenario by Winthrop Ames. Taylor wrote this for two pianos, and we may well hope that he carries out his intention of scoring it for orchestra.
The music radiates moonlight and romance, and its humor enhances the spirit of satire. The opening measures establish the atmosphere with a 5-4 theme:
The Royal Bedchamber episode is ushered in with this vigorous motive:
