Sir Arnold Bax

[vandermolen]

Here's a transfer from the Lp:

http://themusicparlour.blogspot.com/2011/03/edward-downes-london-symphony-orchestra.html

I haven't heard it yet.

I own that LP 

Thanks very much for the transfer. The accompanying 'The Happy Forest', is also the best perforance of that work - much more dreamlike and 'legendary' in its central episode. Johan will agree 

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I own that LP 

Thanks very much for the transfer. The accompanying 'The Happy Forest', is also the best perforance of that work - much more dreamlike and 'legendary' in its central episode. Johan will agree 

Indeed I do. 

[Daverz]

Terrific site!!

I should warn you that the proprietor of that site, one Frank W. Martin, is a very nasty piece of work.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I should warn you that the proprietor of that site, one Frank W. Martin, is a very nasty piece of work.

I'll avoid him, then. But not the uploads. 

[cilgwyn]

Ah ha! After reading these posts I located my old ex library copy of RCA Bax Downes Lp! Not pristine by any means,with some Swansea library scribbles in biro,mainly at the top of each side,but thankfully quite small. The last time I played it I think it skipped a bit,BUT this may have been the cheap Bush record deck which I bought to play my old Lp's & which I have since thrown away.

[vandermolen]

Ah ha! After reading these posts I located my old ex library copy of RCA Bax Downes Lp! Not pristine by any means,with some Swansea library scribbles in biro,mainly at the top of each side,but thankfully quite small. The last time I played it I think it skipped a bit,BUT this may have been the cheap Bush record deck which I bought to play my old Lp's & which I have since thrown away.

I discovered this LP in the Lancaster University library c 1973 - I was constantly sneaking into their listening room to play it along with the MTT DGG recording of Ives's 'Three Paces in New England' - both works made a big impression on me and I went on to collect all the Bax symphonies on LP.

[cilgwyn]

My Bax collection began with the Lyrita Lp of Tintagel,The Garden of Fand,Northern Ballad No 1 & Meditarranean conducted by Boult. I think that very striking cover design of that huge wave (I haven't got the Lp anymore,sadly,so I'm relying on memory) DID have something to do with my purchase,though. Sadly, I played it about once or twice then it just stayed in the stack. Then one day my dad brought a friend of his back,a bit drunk & he noticed my Bax Lp & asked me to put it on. He sat there listening to it & going on about how wonderful Bax was (and Moeran). He seemed to think I was a bit of an idiot for not playing it! At any rate,after that visit back it went in the stack!
  A couple of years later I put the Lp on again. Suddenly it all seemed to click! After that I collected all the Chandos Lp's with their lovely & very well chosen (at least I thought) cover photos,but this time I definately wasn't buying them for the photo's. I also bought 'Winter Legends' (I remember Margaret Fingerhut looked rather nice to my adolescent mind!) & the 'Symphonic Variations'. Symphonies 1,2,3, 6 &  'Winter Legends' in particular got played to death. 'Winter Legends' in particular,must be one of my most played records ever! I couldn't believe that such exciting,romantic,emotionally visceral music had never been recorded before. In emotional terms Rachmaninov's Concert works seemed almost repressed in comparison (and yes,I know I'm exaggerating a little here). I still can't why music like this isn't in the repertoire.
  I must buy the new Naxos cd of 'Winter Legends' but it will have to wait for the time being as I'm on A H-H-Hancock style thrift drive!!!
 

[Mirror Image]

I really need to plan a Bax marathon as it's been quite awhile since I've listened to any of his music. I own all of the Handley, Thomson, and Lloyd-Jones recordings, so I just need to figure out what I want to listen to first. I think I'll listen to this one first:

[asin]B0001CCXSE[/asin]

This whole series is just fantastic, so I probably could start anywhere, but I remember Winter Legends making a strong impact on me.

[eyeresist]

And 'Winter Legends' is a piece I still haven't heard. I guess I should remedy that. *goes onto Amazon*

[Lethevich]

It's a force of nature, for sure. I like how a previous member described it as something like 'subtle as a herd of stampeding wooly mammoth' (he wasn't a great fan of Bax's excesses ).

[eyeresist]

I did a search for "mammoths" and found that post by Kentel. He also described Bax's brass elsewhere as "diplodocus-like" and "elephantine". The whole thing seemed slightly unhinged. 

[vandermolen]

My Bax collection began with the Lyrita Lp of Tintagel,The Garden of Fand,Northern Ballad No 1 & Meditarranean conducted by Boult. I think that very striking cover design of that huge wave (I haven't got the Lp anymore,sadly,so I'm relying on memory) DID have something to do with my purchase,though. Sadly, I played it about once or twice then it just stayed in the stack. Then one day my dad brought a friend of his back,a bit drunk & he noticed my Bax Lp & asked me to put it on. He sat there listening to it & going on about how wonderful Bax was (and Moeran). He seemed to think I was a bit of an idiot for not playing it! At any rate,after that visit back it went in the stack!
  A couple of years later I put the Lp on again. Suddenly it all seemed to click! After that I collected all the Chandos Lp's with their lovely & very well chosen (at least I thought) cover photos,but this time I definately wasn't buying them for the photo's. I also bought 'Winter Legends' (I remember Margaret Fingerhut looked rather nice to my adolescent mind!) & the 'Symphonic Variations'. Symphonies 1,2,3, 6 &  'Winter Legends' in particular got played to death. 'Winter Legends' in particular,must be one of my most played records ever! I couldn't believe that such exciting,romantic,emotionally visceral music had never been recorded before. In emotional terms Rachmaninov's Concert works seemed almost repressed in comparison (and yes,I know I'm exaggerating a little here). I still can't why music like this isn't in the repertoire.
  I must buy the new Naxos cd of 'Winter Legends' but it will have to wait for the time being as I'm on A H-H-Hancock style thrift drive!!!

That Lyrita LP with the big wave picture was a very early Bax purchase for me too (it is in the attic somewhere), along with another Lyrita LP with a sriking orange cover featuring Boult conducting 'November Woods' and Moeran's 'Sinfonietta' with Holst's 'Fugal Overture'.  I bought the LP for the Moeran but really enjoyed the Bax (although not the Holst). Those LPs had much better cover art than the incredibly drab abstract design - an identical version of which (in a different colour) featured on all the Lyrita LPs of the Bax symphonies.

Hancock's 'The Economy Drive' is another favourite too!

[cilgwyn]

Sometimes cover art does help influence a decision,I suppose. Think of all the additional sales of Bax cd's if a record label were to follow the lead of 'Electric Ladyland' and put naked women on the covers? Of course,Bax being rather fond of the ladies himself,it would't be entirely inappropriate!!!
Being a respectable person I would of course make a suitable complaint to the appropriate department!
  On a more serious note the mid price reissues of Chando's Orchestral Works while cheap and cheerful,I suppose,ARE rather dull to look at,from a purely aesthetic point of view. The original photograph of sweeping ice fields on the front of the original issue of 'Winter Legends' is far racier than the cover art on the re-issue which looks like the top of my old grandmothers christmas cake. If I saw that in a 'record shop' and I hadn't heard of Bax I doubt if I would have taken a second look.
Still,one good thing about the un-starry status of Bryden Thomson's erstwhile reputation is the fact that the original cd's with the more invigorating artwork are cheap enough even for a miser like me!
  As to the aforementioned 'Kentel', I have to say I am deeply hurt by his comments. I have scrutinised the front cover of my Lp copy of 'Winter Legends' with a magnifying class & I am unable to detect a single woolly mammoth,alive or dead. Although it is quite possible that there is one buried beneath the snow somewhere!!!!

[cilgwyn]

I just listened to a clip of the opening to the first movement of the Classico recording by  Bax's Sixth Symphony. Any comments about this? It sounded pretty peculiar to me. For one moment I thought Amazon had got their audio clips mixed up with another composer.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I just listened to a clip of the opening to the first movement of the Classico recording by  Bax's Sixth Symphony. Any comments about this? It sounded pretty peculiar to me. For one moment I thought Amazon had got their audio clips mixed up with another composer.

It's part of the opening all right. The Naxos (Lloyd-Jones) and the Chandos (both Thomson and Handley) strike me as better, though...

[cilgwyn]

It's just the tempi. I better be careful here.....almost a goose step. Very jaunty,perhaps the rest of the performance is better. It's interesting to hear different interpretations & they're aren't that many recordings of Bax's Sixth. The prospect of a German or French or Italian (!) orchestra doing a Bax symphony intrigues me. Bostock is quite a good conductor but judging by reviews I have read he was somewhat let down by his orchestra. At least one good review on Musicweb,though. I do wish some continental orchestra's would take Bostock's lead though.
I might add it to my 'library' though. It doesn't sound THAT bad!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

A Bax completist owes it to himself to add the Bostock. Four versions (forgot the one on Lyrita) are enough for me!

[cilgwyn]

You need a modern equivalent of Maurice Abravanel and the Utah orchestra. Or on a more exalted level, Mengelberg. Now that would be interesting? Or even better,Golovanov! Now HE would have made something out of Bax's most temptestuous symphony!
I hear Jarvi is going to be recording the Raff symphonies for Chandos,so there is hope. Previn aroused controversy many years ago by doing a Vaughan Williams cycle so why not a Bax cycle from a European or even American perspective?
If only I had a record label of my own. I understand Ted Heaton started Hyperion on his Kitchen table. Like wise Hugh Hefner began his Playboy empire on a humble photo copier. Likewise,Tesco started operating as a market stall? So all I need to kick start my European Bax cycle is a kitchen table,a photo copier & a market stall. None of which I currently own.
Now where's my shopping list?

[cilgwyn]

And I like Bostock. He's very adventurous in his tastes & he deserves all the sales he gets.
I'm off to buy it.

[cilgwyn]

Done!