Sir Arnold Bax

[vandermolen]

Bax as viewed by an American music publication in 1924.

http://landofllostcontent.blogspot.com/2023/02/arnold-bax-pen-portrait-by-john-f-porte.html

Premier of the 7th Symphony with Sir Adrian Boult conducting New York Philharmonic.

https://youtu.be/TwxbSiJpeOg

Fabulous - thanks for posting this Lol 

[Maestro267]

I still need to pick up the Symphonic Variations, Bax's other major work for piano and orchestra.

[Albion]

Can we see a photo? 

If I had anything better than a £10 s-h phone which is close to death I would gladly post shots of the Tower of Babel. Suffice to say that if I try to move a pile of CDs around another one wobbles alarmingly so I just tend to grab what's on top. I HAVE managed to excavate the Bax but it takes me so long now: I didn't realise that CDs were so heavy...

I still need to pick up the Symphonic Variations, Bax's other major work for piano and orchestra.

I like Margaret Fingerhut and Bryden Thomson on Chandos (CHAN 10209-2).

 

[Maestro267]

Just playing a long game of Jenga But With CDs... 

[vandermolen]

If I had anything better than a £10 s-h phone which is close to death I would gladly post shots of the Tower of Babel. Suffice to say that if I try to move a pile of CDs around another one wobbles alarmingly so I just tend to grab what's on top. I HAVE managed to excavate the Bax but it takes me so long now: I didn't realise that CDs were so heavy...



I like Margaret Fingerhut and Bryden Thomson on Chandos (CHAN 10209-2).

 

I was hoping for more of a Leaning Tower of Pisa effect 

[Roasted Swan]

I still need to pick up the Symphonic Variations, Bax's other major work for piano and orchestra.

Personally I'd go for Wass on Naxos over Fingerhut - and just for fun Hatto on Revolution is actually rather good too (not that Fingerhut is anything but very good too - I just find the Chandos recording less appealing....)

[Albion]

I was hoping for more of a Leaning Tower of Pisa effect 

 

I fell onto a tower the other day and the resulting debris (amongst shattered jewel-cases) unearthed some Casella, Draeseke, Rimsky, Auber, Robert Stolz and Bonynge's "Ballet Gala". I rely increasingly on the "lottery" principle...

[vandermolen]

I fell onto a tower the other day and the resulting debris (amongst shattered jewel-cases) unearthed some Casella, Draeseke, Rimsky, Auber, Robert Stolz and Bonynge's "Ballet Gala". I rely increasingly on the "lottery" principle...

Every cloud has a silver lining 

[Albion]

Every cloud has a silver lining 

Indeed, will there be a musical silver lining at the coronation bun-fight? Hmmm, what fresh hell is this?

https://royalcentral.co.uk/uk/first-details-of-coronation-service-revealed-as-new-music-is-announced-188273/?fbclid=IwAR1QzrIvpROz5XgXDEz-F3kDxplacLNDW8HqjqPmrpJOF_iWipnZ-xxmeN0

"Brighter Visions Shine Afar", they certainly don't from where I'm sitting. Jenkins and Lloyd Webber pop up and "Nigel Hess, Roderick Williams and Shirley J Thompson have worked on "Be Thou My Vision – A Triptych for Orchestra' which creates responses to the traditional hymn and melds them together into a piece of music." Bloody Nora, A PIECE OF MUSIC, who would have thought such things possible? The Coronation Orchestra is to conducted by Pappano. Patrick Doyle has written a march which will be interesting to compare with Walton's, and Iain Farrington has said that his piece is '"all mixed together in a joyful, jazzy and dance-like character". So Camilla will be doing the conga round Westminster Abbey with her crown askew whilst guzzling a large G&T. It should be compulsive viewing. I've already organised my local street party, ordering two pork pies and making some bunting out of toilet paper (coloured with Crayola crayons) in celebration... 

[Maestro267]

I'm inclined to go for the Chandos as that's the Winter Legends that I have and I absolutely love that recording!

[vandermolen]

Indeed, will there be a musical silver lining at the coronation bun-fight? Hmmm, what fresh hell is this?

https://royalcentral.co.uk/uk/first-details-of-coronation-service-revealed-as-new-music-is-announced-188273/?fbclid=IwAR1QzrIvpROz5XgXDEz-F3kDxplacLNDW8HqjqPmrpJOF_iWipnZ-xxmeN0

"Brighter Visions Shine Afar", they certainly don't from where I'm sitting. Jenkins and Lloyd Webber pop up and "Nigel Hess, Roderick Williams and Shirley J Thompson have worked on "Be Thou My Vision – A Triptych for Orchestra' which creates responses to the traditional hymn and melds them together into a piece of music." Bloody Nora, A PIECE OF MUSIC, who would have thought such things possible? The Coronation Orchestra is to conducted by Pappano. Patrick Doyle has written a march which will be interesting to compare with Walton's, and Iain Farrington has said that his piece is '"all mixed together in a joyful, jazzy and dance-like character". So Camilla will be doing the conga round Westminster Abbey with her crown askew whilst guzzling a large G&T. It should be compulsive viewing. I've already organised my local street party, ordering two pork pies and making some bunting out of toilet paper (coloured with Crayola crayons) in celebration... 

Not a particularly inspiring choice of music IMO but hopefully there will be some good stuff. Where is Bliss's 'Processional'?

[calyptorhynchus]

Not a particularly inspiring choice of music IMO but hopefully there will be some good stuff. Where is Bliss's 'Processional'?

Never mind the music, this Coronation has a piece of the True Cross! Can't get any better than that.

[Roasted Swan]

I do find the descriptions of the new works underwhelming but in fairness Patrick Doyle has written some fine film scores - his Henry V score is genuinely powerful.  I love this famous Eve of St. Crispin's speech which I feel is both moving and rousing. 

But that's quite a jump from that kind of score to an enduring/memorable Coronation March - he has quite a tradition to follow....  Likewise I've been impressed by Iain Farrington's arrangements of Holst and Vaughan Williams but again not of a stature of those who came before.

[Maestro267]

We already have a thread for discussion on the music for the Coronation: https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,32247.0.html

[relm1]

Bax as viewed by an American music publication in 1924.

http://landofllostcontent.blogspot.com/2023/02/arnold-bax-pen-portrait-by-john-f-porte.html

Premier of the 7th Symphony with Sir Adrian Boult conducting New York Philharmonic.

https://youtu.be/TwxbSiJpeOg

It is interesting how some composers of noteworthiness in their day seem forgotten now.  The article says Bax studied composition under "Frederick Corder, a composer and well-known authority on the orchestra."  I've never heard of him and even the British Classical Music website featuring this article doesn't even reference him.  Kind of interesting how one passes from prominence to obscurity and vice versa.

[Albion]

It is interesting how some composers of noteworthiness in their day seem forgotten now.  The article says Bax studied composition under "Frederick Corder, a composer and well-known authority on the orchestra."  I've never heard of him and even the British Classical Music website featuring this article doesn't even reference him.  Kind of interesting how one passes from prominence to obscurity and vice versa.

Corder taught Bax, Holbrooke, Bantock and Bowen at the RAM. Most of his music was destroyed by his daughter, along with that of her brother in 1942. The only commercial recording is the overture "Prospero" on a fine disc of "Victorian Concert Overtures" (Hyperion). It's a really good score. I constructed the work-list and source information on Wikipedia and added biography information and portraits...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Corder

 

[Maestro267]

I definitely had that Victorian Concert Overtures disc at one point. I may still have it, or it may have fallen victim to The Cull at some point.

[Albion]

I definitely had that Victorian Concert Overtures disc at one point. I may still have it, or it may have fallen victim to The Cull at some point.

So many CDs have passed through my hands over the decades that I now have no idea what I actually have. The disc (subsequently released as a Helios issue) is also particularly valuable for Macfarren's "Chevy Chace" and Pierson's "Romeo and Juliet", which are also unique recordings. The others (Sullivan's "Macbeth", Elgar's "Froissart", Parry's "Overture to an Unwritten Tragedy" and Mackenzie's "Britannia") have been better rendered elsewhere (mainly by Rumon Gamba on Chandos)...

[Luke]

Harriet Cohen wrote that it was at a party at 'the Corders' that she wore the single daffodil to which Bax's piano piece refers (it was one of their first encounters, and the one where she struck him so deeply). But afaik she never specified which Corder's house it was - Frederick the father or Paul the son (anyone know?)

[lordlance]

I made a chronological list of all Bax's purely orchestral works for those interested:

Code Select Expand

1. Variations for Orchestra (Improvisations) (1904)
2. A Song of War and Victory (1905)
3. Cathaleen-ni-Hoolihan (1905)
4. Symphony in F (1907, piano score; 2012–13 completed and orchestrated by Martin Yates)
5. Into The Twilight (1908)
6. On the Sea Shore (1908, orch. 1984)
7. In the Faëry Hills (1909)
8. Rosc-catha (1910)
9. Tamara (1911, orch. 2000)
10. Festival Overture (1911, revised 1918)
11. Dance of Wild Irravel (1912)
12. Nympholept (1912, orch. 1915, revised 1935)
13. Christmas Eve (1912, revised c.1921)
14. Four Orchestral Pieces (1912–13)
15. The Garden of Fand (1913, orch. 1916)
16. Three Pieces for Small Orchestra (1913, revised 1928)
17. Spring Fire, Symphony for Orchestra (1913, sometimes classified as a Tone Poem)
18. In Memoriam (1916)
19. From Dusk till Dawn (1917)
20. November Woods (1917)
21. Tintagel (1917, orch. 1919)
22. Summer Music (1917, orch. 1921, revised 1932)
23. Symphonic Scherzo (1917, revised 1933)
24. Symphonic Variations, for piano and orchestra (1918)
25. Russian Suite (1919)
26. Phantasy for Viola and Orchestra (1920)
27. The Truth about the Russian Dancers (1920)
28. Mediterranean (1922)
29. The Happy Forest (1922)
30. Cortège (1925)
31. Romantic Overture (1926)
32. Northern Ballad No. 1 (1927)
33. Overture, Elegy and Rondo (1927)
34. Prelude for a Solemn Occasion (Northern Ballad No. 3) (1927, orch. 1933)
35. Three Pieces (1928)
36. Overture to a Picaresque Comedy (1930)
37. Winter Legends, for piano and orchestra (1930)
38. The Tale the Pine Trees Knew (1931)
39. Cello Concerto (1932)
40. Saga Fragment (1932)
41. Saga Fragment, for piano and orchestra (1932)
42. Sinfonietta (1932)
43. Overture to Adventure (1936)
44. Rogue's Comedy Overture (1936)
45. London Pageant (1937)
46. Paean (1938)
47. Violin Concerto (1938)
48. Piano Concertino (1939)
49. Salute to Sydney (Fanfare) (1943)
50. Work in Progress (Overture) (1943)
51. A Legend (1944)
52. The Golden Eagle (Incidental Music) (1945)
53. Victory March (1945)
54. Morning Song, for piano and orchestra (1946)
55. Two Royal Wedding Fanfares (1947)
56. Concertante for Three Solo Wind Instruments and Orchestra (1948/1949)
57. Concertante for Orchestra with Piano (Left Hand) (1949)
58. Variations on the name Gabriel Fauré for Harp & String Orchestra (1949)
59. Coronation March (1952)
If there are any corrections or omissions, let me know!