There is an arrangement for piccolo, flute, oboe, cor anglais, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, two trombones, and strings; also a two-piano reduction.
[1] Holst began to write the Fugal Overture in the summer of 1922, composing for the most part in a soundproof room at St Paul's Girls' School, where he worked as a music teacher.
[6] The BBC broadcast the work for the first time early in 1924, and in 1927 the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Václav Talich performed it in Prague.
[16] R. W. S. Mendl called it "an exhilarating piece of fun from beginning to end", but Dyneley Hussey complained that both the Overture and Holst's almost contemporaneous Fugal Concerto were "[p]erverse exercises in the contrapuntal style, devoid of any warmth and...real vitality".
The Times, reviewing a 1956 performance by Boult, thought he made a cogent case for it as "an invigorating work that could effectively start any symphony concert".
"[21] In more recent years it has been called "bracingly exuberant",[22] and "a thrilling little piece...which feels like a 1920s equivalent of Short Ride in a Fast Machine.