His latter years
Another factor which was to colour the last fourteen years of Frankel’s life and work was his deteriorating health. In 1959, during one of many return visits to England, he suffered his first heart attack. During the three weeks he spent recovering in Guy’s Hospital, London, he composed his Bagatelles for Eleven Instruments (Cinque Pezzi Notturni) with what was to become a characteristic - and in his view essential - resolve. He appeared to recover fully. After a few years, however, he suffered a cerebral thrombosis. Again he recovered but developed an acute and chronic angina pectoris, for which, latterly, he had to take GTN tablets (which dilate the arteries) by the fistful. 1969 found him, once again, in Guy’s Hospital - this time not expected to survive. Yet, with a now familiar fortitude and courage, he asked his third wife-to- be (his second wife having died two years earlier) to bring fresh manuscript to his bedside. This she did and he proceeded to compose virtually his entire sixth symphony there. Once again, he survived and continued to live life as fully as possible, within the limitations his health imposed upon him. For example, he took holidays in the Swiss Alps and would go on walks with his wife. When, eventually, he felt that he had walked enough, or reached a maximum safe altitude (an essential consideration for those with heart disease) he would find a suitably comfortable rock on which to plant himself, take out his pocket manuscript book and proceed to jot down ideas for new works, while his wife and others with him completed their meanderings. He also enjoyed a game of table tennis - pausing every so often for the inevitable angina attacks to subside.
Perhaps, in drawing to a close, it would be fitting to quote the composer’s own view of his illness, which he expressed to Robert Layton in their 1970 broadcast discussion (mentioned earlier) for the Third Programme: “…I suffer from a…disease called angina pectoris which one can’t control, excepting by learning what to do not to bring it into great prominence in one’s life; the consequence of all this is that one is limited, physically, not only in the hours that one ought to work but in the kind of activity one usually makes. I’ve usually been a terribly restless person until actually composing and I’ve enjoyed, enormously, rushing about in all directions, until suddenly I find that it’s the moment for work. Nowadays I can’t rush about, so I learn to sit longer hours at my work - I also learn that, if I’m feeling ill, this is not an excuse for not working and that the more ill one is , the more urgent it becomes to work.”. Frankel went on to discuss his approaching end in philosophical terms and the way in which “the unwelcome visitor” affected the content of his work.
Frankel and his third wife Xenia, at
Tibberton Court near Cheltenham, for
the premiere of his Viola Concerto, July 1967
(they married in February 1972)
His last three symphonies, his opera, the Overture to a Ceremony and the Pezzi Melodici, were all written in the shadow of such recognition, yet he never gave in to anything approaching depression and his teasing wit remained with him until the end. He continued to enjoy food and wine, the theatre, the cinema, books, family life and anything else not injurious to his failing health. The composer’s last, fateful, journey was by ambulance to New End Hospital in London, during the early hours of 12th February 1973. His will to live and to compose was still in evidence he asked his wife to bring fresh manuscript to the hospital, as in the past, with the intention of working. Alas, it was not to be: despite a long and dedicated effort by the emergency staff to revive him, Frankel had fought, and lost, his last battle. He was survived by his wife, and also by his first wife and two sons. So ended a rich and varied life - one which cannot be served by full justice here. Perhaps, though, something of Frankel’s personality and courage has emerged that will encourage further investigation of his story and his music.
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