Is Bax the next big thing?

[vandermolen]

This is my favourite Bax CD - although of largely unknown works - well worth investigating as it is at budget price. As for the symphonies I'd recommend No 2 and 5 on a single Lyrita CD - great performances by Myer Fredman and Raymond Leppard.

[The new erato]

As for the symphonies I'd recommend No 2 and 5 on a single Lyrita CD - great performances by Myer Fredman and Raymond Leppard.

That disc - particularly no 5 - was my wakeup call to the greatness of Bax despite having heard various discs through the years.

[Herman]

There seems to be lots of Bruckner and Mahler threads here.  Great symphonies.  But in the line of things, do you think Bax is next?  I have the Handley box on Chandos and they seem really well played (and good sound) but Bax really changes ideas fast; faster than Mahler I think.  Last time I tried to get through a symphony his ideas, phrases were all over the place.  Seemed each new few bars had completely unrelated material. 

Is Bax a great composer that's going to be the next big thing in symphonic soundscapes in the line of Beethoven, Bruckner and Mahler, or is he off to the side for a reason? 

Bruckner -> Mahler -> Shostakovich

[vandermolen]

That disc - particularly no 5 - was my wakeup call to the greatness of Bax despite having heard various discs through the years.

Me too - on a Lyrita LP. I was actually lucky enough to hear the work live - at the Proms many years ago.  The Albert Hall was sadly but predictably half-empty 

[Grazioso]

The next big thing? Pretty doubtful. But darn if he isn't an intriguing and delightful composer! Anyone with a hankering for lush, challenging Late Romanticism needs to explore his work. Oh, and woodwind players, too, since winds play a central role in his unique style of orchestrating.

A good place to start, which includes some of his most accessible "greatest hits" like the unforgettable Tingtagel:

I've been rediscovering Bax since I bought the Handley box set.  Exceptional music.  I think I wasn't wowed enough with the previous recordings.  The Thomson recordings sounded too remote (bad acoustics?) and Lloyd-Jones take on it so fast it just makes a joke of the music.  But Handley brings great sound quality AND performances to the table. 

I have both the Handley and the Lloyd-Jones cycles and find the latter an excellent alternative to the former. Both were/are skilled, dedicated Baxians.

[vandermolen]

The next big thing? Pretty doubtful. But darn if he isn't an intriguing and delightful composer! Anyone with a hankering for lush, challenging Late Romanticism needs to explore his work. Oh, and woodwind players, too, since winds play a central role in his unique style of orchestrating.

A good place to start, which includes some of his most accessible "greatest hits" like the unforgettable Tingtagel:



I have both the Handley and the Lloyd-Jones cycles and find the latter an excellent alternative to the former. Both were/are skilled, dedicated Baxians.

Yes, that's a really good intro. to Bax too.

[Superhorn]

  I don't know if Bax is the "next big thing", but his music certainly deserves to be heard more often, and I certainly hope this will happen.
But his music is somewhat elusive,particularly his symphonies, and does not reveal its secrets on first hearing .
I've heard the Thomson set of the symphonies, but not the more recent Handley one ,both on Chandos, and have the classic Barbirolli/Halle orch. recording on EMI coupled with music by John Ireland .
The colorful tone poem "Tintagel" is a work which I think would please audiences if they got to hear it.
  But Bax is only one of many lesser-known but estimable composers who might become the"next big thing", such as Myaskovsky, Stenhammar, Berwald, Bliss, Schmidt, Fibich, Koechlin, etc.