Arnold Bax was the natural successor to Elgar, a responsibility that he did not welcome. In his early career he enjoyed considerable success with a group of symphonic poems, of which The Happy Forest is a fine example. Yet it was with his first two symphonies that his international reputation was achieved. In his Symphony No. 3, completed in 1929, the wide mood changes are perfectly integrated into the structure of the work. Evocative of the wild landscape of northern Scotland, the Symphony culminates in a magical and gravely beautiful epilogue.