Sir Arnold Bax

[Sean]

By the way I'm travelling to Ireland for a second visit in July or August, hoping to call at Bax's grave at St Finbarr's Cemetery, Glasheen Road, Cork.

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

By the way I'm travelling to Ireland for a second visit in July or August, hoping to call at Bax's grave at St Finbarr's Cemetery, Glasheen Road, Cork.

Tell him "How's the lad?"  for me.  BTW, you and I are among the (select ) few GMGers to really love his Red Autumn and other piano works.

[Sean]

Very much so. The Chandos recordings of the solo and double piano music are definitive.

[vandermolen]

By the way I'm travelling to Ireland for a second visit in July or August, hoping to call at Bax's grave at St Finbarr's Cemetery, Glasheen Road, Cork.

My brother visited it when he was in Ireland many years ago. I haven't been there but have on several occasions been to the 'White Horse' in Storrington which is near to where I live and is the pub in which Bax lived for the last part of his life. There is a plaque commemorating him outside.

[Sean]

Hi vandermolen, I never made it to Storrington though I did live in East Sussex for a while, not so far away. I've been to Glencolumbkille and Morar, and also Moscow and St Petersburg, where he was in 1913. The other place would be Streatham in London where he was born...

I never usually do this sort of thing by the way, but Bax is the greatest English composer of any period.

[Sean]

By the way the sultry and intuitive Grueberg/ McCabe Violin sonatas 1 and 2 on Chandos are now on YT, if in separate movements.

[vandermolen]

Hi vandermolen, I never made it to Storrington though I did live in East Sussex for a while, not so far away. I've been to Glencolumbkille and Morar, and also Moscow and St Petersburg, where he was in 1913. The other place would be Streatham in London where he was born...

I never usually do this sort of thing by the way, but Bax is the greatest English composer of any period.

Hello Sean, that is really very interesting. The pub is nothing special on the inside although there are a couple of Bax- related pictures, but nothing special. I rate Bax very highly too but also Vaughan Williams.

[Sean]

Britain remains a philistine country.

Similar story to yours at Morar Hotel, the receptionists looking at me like I was asking about nuclear physics. I'd read there was a plaque in the lounge but didn't see one, and certainly no statue or anything else.

Probably would be really bad for business, anything to do with art or value. They found this guy working in the kitchens who knew something about Bax having stayed, though not much. He had a mention on the website but that was it.

There's a bit more to see and do in Glencolumbkille, and I was shown the house he rented.

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

Britain remains a philistine country.

Similar story to yours at Morar Hotel, the receptionists looking at me like I was asking about nuclear physics. I'd read there was a plaque in the lounge but didn't see one, and certainly no statue or anything else.

Probably would be really bad for business, anything to do with art or value. They found this guy working in the kitchens who knew something about Bax having stayed, though not much. He had a mention on the website but that was it.

There's a bit more to see and do in Glencolumbkille, and I was shown the house he rented.

No matter.  Sir Arnold's spirit is in the woods and in the mist and myths...and the wonderful music he left us.

[vandermolen]

Britain remains a philistine country.

Similar story to yours at Morar Hotel, the receptionists looking at me like I was asking about nuclear physics. I'd read there was a plaque in the lounge but didn't see one, and certainly no statue or anything else.

Probably would be really bad for business, anything to do with art or value. They found this guy working in the kitchens who knew something about Bax having stayed, though not much. He had a mention on the website but that was it.

There's a bit more to see and do in Glencolumbkille, and I was shown the house he rented.

So much for my plan to go to Morar one day. 

Mind you, when I was in Leningrad in 1985 and went into 'Melodiya' record shop in Nevsky Prospect and asked if they had any LPs of Miaskovsky they looked at me like I was mad. Surprisingly, a friend of mine was amazed that they did seem to have many recordings of music by Bax until he realised that 'Bax' meant 'Bach' in Russian!

[vandermolen]

No matter.  Sir Arnold's spirit is in the woods and in the mist and myths...and the wonderful music he left us.

That is so true.

[Sean]

Hi vandermolen, sure, I know about the Bax spelling thing, thanks. Morar is certainly a lovely area while Glencolumbkille has a different character, a bit peculiar and rugged where the storms can get violent, and I noticed that the sound of the waves is very audible from Bax's house- I assume he liked it!

[vandermolen]

Hi vandermolen, sure, I know about the Bax spelling thing, thanks. Morar is certainly a lovely area while Glencolumbkille has a different character, a bit peculiar and rugged where the storms can get violent, and I noticed that the sound of the waves is very audible from Bax's house- I assume he liked it!

Thanks Sean nice to hear.

[Christo]

a friend of mine was amazed that they did seem to have many recordings of music by Bax until he realised that 'Bax' meant 'Bach' in Russian!

I think I confessed here before, that on my first 'Russian' Tour I experienced the same illusion in a music store in Moscow - though it didn't last long. 

[vandermolen]

I think I confessed here before, that on my first 'Russian' Tour I experienced the same illusion in a music store in Moscow - though it didn't last long. 

[tjguitar]

It's been a while since I've posted here, but I noticed a new recording of the cello concerto is out on Lyrita. As far as I know, the only other recording is the one on Chandos from the 80s. Has anyone heard this new one?




In addition, there has been no mention of the recording Chandos a few years ago of the Viola Phantasy! Handley recorded the viola phantasy in the 90's, but as I recall it was difficult to find. Thisrecording of the Overture, Elegy & Rondo in my opinion is stronger than the Wordsworth version on Marco Polo/Naxos.




And it looks like we are still waiting for the Downes 3rd to come out on CD...sigh. I've actually just ordered the Lloyd Jones recordings of the symphonies. It's been some time since I've listened to Bax (already having the Thomson, the Handley, and the various Lyrita recordings), and I look forward to hearing the Naxos recordings for the first time.

[Scion7]

No, but Lyrita is a class-act label, so I'm sure it is pretty good.

[calyptorhynchus]

I listened to the only recording of Bax's String Quintet recently and was a bit bemused to find it was a single movement 11 minue work (though a very fine one).

Does anyone know why Bax titled this work String Quintet instead of 'movement for String Quintet', or didn't give it a tone-poem like title?

[Sean]

The Parlett catalogue says the String quintet is a full length work...

http://www.davidparlett.co.uk/bax/bax0509.html

Quintet in G
    107. For 2 violins, viola, 2 cellos. First performed in 1908, it was described by one critic as "Elaborate, but dull and diffuse". Its second performance, by the 'Divertimenti' at the Lichfield Festival of 2001, revealed this substantial work - in four movements and lasting about 35 minutes - to be full of sparkle, vigour and inventiveness, leaving one to wonder whether the 1908 critic had been awake and sober at the time. Bax reworked a theme from the first movement as the piano piece A Hill Tune (1920) and later revised the slow movement as Lyrical Interlude (1922).

[calyptorhynchus]

Nah, wrong one

String Quintet
319. For 2 violins, 2 violas 1 cello; in one movement.

from 1933

The reason I didn't know is that I downloaded the tracks (having paid for them) but didn't get the booklet. Just now I remembered that you can download the booklet from the Chandos without having bought it. And I did, and this is what Lewis Foreman says about it:

This later quintet is characterized by its
constant changes of texture and tempo, the
score littered with dynamic markings.
Falling between the Fifth and Sixth
Symphonies in Bax's output, this manyfaceted
score again reflects Bax's love affair
with Ireland, from the overtly Irish jig to the
many passages of nature painting evoked
with a wonderfully varied palette, at one
place foreshadowing the running semiquavers
from the opening Allegro con fuoco of
the Sixth Symphony. But Bax is viewing his
adopted country from ten years after 'the
troubles' and despite conflicting memories
the final statement of the jig is triumphal.