Sir Arnold Bax

[Sean]

Listening to the Thomson Walton First again now- that style of Dionysian surge for linking ideas along with tremendous counterpoint is perfect for Bax.

[vandermolen]

Listening to the Thomson Walton First again now- that style of Dionysian surge for linking ideas along with tremendous counterpoint is perfect for Bax.

Yes, that is such a great performance. Going back to Bax (  ) I also like the Lloyd-Jones and Handley cycles too and think that Bax is generally well served on disc. Decades ago a friend of mine was delighted to find so many Bax LPs available in a record shop in Moscow until he realised that 'Bax' meant 'Bach' 

PS the Goossens 'Tintagel' is a great historic performance too.

PPS my favourite Lyrita performance is Raymond Leppard's version of Symphony 5. For me it has an epic, 'legendary' quality unlike any other. His Symphony 7 is unrivalled too IMHO.

[Moonfish]

Yes, that is such a great performance. Going back to Bax (  ) I also like the Lloyd-Jones and Handley cycles too and think that Bax is generally well served on disc. Decades ago a friend of mine was delighted to find so many Bax LPs available in a record shop in Moscow until he realised that 'Bax' meant 'Bach' 

PS the Goossens 'Tintagel' is a great historic performance too.

PPS my favourite Lyrita performance is Raymond Leppard's version of Symphony 5. For me it has an epic, 'legendary' quality unlike any other.

That is very funny!!     

[vandermolen]

That is very funny!!     

Glad you thought so. 

[Sean]

Thanks, I've already heard those Leppard renditions, some careful and original thought, though again not entirely in the Dionysian vane Thomson finds.

I guess I like his baroque opera better, but will give his Fifth another streaming.

[Ken B]

I like brooding music...     

Dark, inward, beautiful, melancholic tonal potions, please!

*chokes back comment about Verdi*

[Moonfish]

*chokes back comment about Verdi*

[Klaze]

I can sympathize with some of the posters here. Listening to Bax can be a frustrating experience, yet I feel attracted to his music, but he's not a type of composer I always feel like listening to

My favourite works are symphonies 2, 3, 5 and 6, Nympholept, Tintagel, The Garden of Fand, November Woods, and the Chamber music disc on Hyperion with the Nash Ensemble.
The third String Quartet is also a strong work.
In general, the concertante works strike me as least inspired.

Still need to hear some works like the Violin Sonatas and cello works...

[Sean]

The Cello concerto is one of his greatest works; concertantes for violin, viola and piano are in various ways a little weaker. The Violin concerto comes out worst and at least needs better advocacy than the old Chandos recording.

[vandermolen]

The Cello concerto is one of his greatest works; concertantes for violin, viola and piano are in various ways a little weaker. The Violin concerto comes out worst and at least needs better advocacy than the old Chandos recording.

I like the Symphonic Variations too.

[Sean]

Possibly his greatest work; the Thomson-Fingerhut is unlikely to be surpassed for a long while.

Sorry, the piano concertante works I had in mind that don't flow with topdrawer Baxian intuition were the Concertante for piano left hand, and also Winter Legends to some extent. I still like them tremendously.

[vandermolen]

Possibly his greatest work; the Thomson-Fingerhut is unlikely to be surpassed for a long while.

Sorry, the piano concertante works I had in mind that don't flow with topdrawer Baxian intuition were the Concertante for piano left hand, and also Winter Legends to some extent. I still like them tremendously.

I agree with you and have never really liked the Cello Concerto or Violin Concerto either. The Symphonic Variations is a wonderful work however.

[Sean]

Winter Legends eludes Thomson's usual grasp of the music while the Ashley Wass/ James Judd Naxos recording finds more architecture. Indeed Bax doesn't work to formal frames but the Thomson seems to be episodic in the wrong way; it's his only Bax interpretation with serious shortcomings. However although Bax liked this particular work I'm not yet fully convinced by it anyway.

I'd urge you to persevere with the Thomson Cello concerto, it can seem too dreamy but it suddenly clicked with me and I think very highly of it, and well written for the cello with rich melodies.

[vandermolen]

Winter Legends eludes Thomson's usual grasp of the music while the Ashley Wass/ James Judd Naxos recording finds more architecture. Indeed Bax doesn't work to formal frames but the Thomson seems to be episodic in the wrong way; it's his only Bax interpretation with serious shortcomings. However although Bax liked this particular work I'm not yet fully convinced by it anyway.

I'd urge you to persevere with the Thomson Cello concerto, it can seem too dreamy but it suddenly clicked with me and I think very highly of it, and well written for the cello with rich melodies.

OK, will fish out the Cello Concerto - thanks. I love the Moeran Cello Concerto. Do you know it?

[Sean]

Yes I do, glittering stuff; I see Moeran's aesthetic as midway between Bax and the Vaughan Williams formalists. I once met the owner of the Cello concerto score when I was working for Waterstone's CD department in Birmingham.

[vandermolen]

Yes I do, glittering stuff; I see Moeran's aesthetic as midway between Bax and the Vaughan Williams formalists. I once met the owner of the Cello concerto score when I was working for Waterstone's CD department in Birmingham.

Yes, I agree with your comments about Moeran.

[Sean]

The Moeran Cello concerto at 8'30'' in the performance below hear clearly quotes, or is quoted by, a recognizable Bax moment, I think a theme from Tintagel though not entirely sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIkZwULb63o

The work also begins with a motif on the cello straight from one of the Walton concertos...

[Moonfish]

Bax: Tone Poems Vol 2
Three Northern Ballads
Nympholept
Red Autumn
The Happy Forest
Into the Twilight

BBC Philharmonic/Handley

The Three Northern Ballads were a bit chaotic in my ears. However, I found great pleasure listening to both Nympholept as well as Into the Twilight. It seems as if Bax resonates with me when the works have more harmony and are performed at a slower pace. Other works seem more brisk and filled with disharmony. I suspect that Bax will keep bringing me a blend of these two types of soundscapes? Overall, I found this batch of tone poems both interesting and pleasant. Nympholept will definitely be revisited many times in the future.


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[Sean]

The Northern ballads I think aren't his greatest works but I still like them a great deal; I found Nympholept at least in the Thomson recording a bit hard to follow but it's a medley of invention at least. Red Autumn I know as one of his tremendous short piano works. I must get hold of this disc...

[Sean]

This early Bax symphony written 1907 in his mid-20s is a bit of a beached whale at 78 minutes, only recently orchestrated and recorded. It's complex and vigorous with characteristic harmonies taking shape, though the counterpoint and intuitive movement and surge defining his mature work is less in evidence and instead echoes of Strauss, Rimsky-Korsakov, Scriabin and his dreamier English contemporaries, among others. Clearer formal frames are just being nudged out though and many ideas in the symphonies are heard in progenitor forms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9SPbrBrfEo