Sir Arnold Bax

[Roasted Swan]

I really need to sort my CDs out: I just hunted high and low for half an hour convinced that I had Andrew Davis' "Four Orchestral Pieces", "Phantasy for Viola" and the "Overture, Elegy and Rondo" (CHAN 10829). I eventually discovered it hiding on a miscellaneous shelf for no apparent reason. I'm chaotic at the best of times, but plonking a Bax disc in the midst of compilation albums? I have no idea what was going on there. Anyway, it's now added to the pile along with Handley's "Concertante for Piano Left Hand", "In Memoriam", "The Bard of Dimbovitza" (CHAN 9715) and Brabbins' "London Pageant", "Concertante", "Tamara" and "Cathaleen-ni-Hoolihan" (CHAN 9879). Too much Bax? Er, nope...

 

That was the last Bax disc from Chandos but really one of the best.  Tremendous performances - the Overture, Elegy & Rondo is a kind of Baxian symphony in all but name and the only other version on Marco Polo was distinctly below par.  The Phantasy gets its best performance here too.

[Albion]

That was the last Bax disc from Chandos but really one of the best.  Tremendous performances - the Overture, Elegy & Rondo is a kind of Baxian symphony in all but name and the only other version on Marco Polo was distinctly below par.  The Phantasy gets its best performance here too.

Yes, both Andrew Davis and Martyn Brabbins have done great Bax for Chandos. I wish I could like Martin Yates' orchestration of the early Symphony in F (1907) on Dutton (CDLX 7308) but I just don't. What I DO like are the Variations (1904) also on Dutton (CDLX 7326) which are coupled with Scott's lovely The Melodist and the Nightingales (1929) and an attractive "realisation" of Butterworth's unfinished Fantasia (1916)...

[Roasted Swan]

Yes, both Andrew Davis and Martyn Brabbins have done great Bax for Chandos. I wish I could like Martin Yates' orchestration of the early Symphony in F (1907) on Dutton (CDLX 7308) but I just don't. What I DO like are the Variations (1904) also on Dutton (CDLX 7326) which are coupled with Scott's lovely The Melodist and the Nightingales (1929) and an attractive "realisation" of Butterworth's unfinished Fantasia (1916)...

yes absolutely re the Bax Symphony - a stinker by any measure (and I love Bax!) but the variations are at least interesting.  The only work - as I recall (either from the liner or Parlett or Foreman!) that Bax conducted.  It was such an abject expereince that he never ever returned to the podium........

[Albion]

yes absolutely re the Bax Symphony - a stinker by any measure (and I love Bax!) but the variations are at least interesting.  The only work - as I recall (either from the liner or Parlett or Foreman!) that Bax conducted.  It was such an abject expereince that he never ever returned to the podium........

Yes, he was effectively bullied into conducting the Variations by Stanford: Edward German found the work "eccentric, very" -  Dog alone knows what German would have made of Havergal Brian's wonderful 1903 Burlesque Variations (Toccata Classics TOCC 0110)! The 1890s and 1900s saw an explosion of orchestral variations in Britain with Parry's Symphonic Variations, the last movement of Mackenzie's suite London Day by Day, the last movement of Cowen's A Suite of Old English Dances, Stanford's Down Among the Dead Men, Elgar's Enigma, Bantock's Helena, Hurlstone's Variations on an Original Theme, Variations on a Hungarian Air and Variations on a Swedish Air, Coleridge-Taylor's Variations on an African Air, the final movement of Scott's Symphony No.1, Brian's Variations on an Old Rhyme and Holbrooke's Variations on Three Blind Mice, Variations on The Girl I Left Behind Me and Variations on Auld Lang Syne. And then there's the Bax! What an amazing repertoire of great scores which never get played now (except for the Elgar, of course)...

 

[Albion]

So far up to volume 5 (CHAN x10158) and nothing so far hasn't been totally wonderful: with Christmas Eve, Nympholept and the Overture to a Picaresque Comedy this disc is also another winner. As mentioned before, Chandos really should take a good hard look at their Bax catalogue, sort it out and box up all the orchestral and choral stuff, because as it is you have to go hunting around without initially knowing what is on which disc and it would be so easy to miss wonderful works such as In Memoriam. Let's face it, anyone who likes Bax likes Bax and would make space on their shelves for it whilst throwing out the boring old Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms (kidding). It's as simple as that. If they can repackage Martinu, Arnold, Halvorsen, Vaughan Williams film music, "Vienna Premiere", Richard Hickox, etc. they could certainly do the same for Bax and give us a nice, big, fat, handy box - so at least I wouldn't misplace the bloody discs...

 

[Roasted Swan]

So far up to volume 5 (CHAN x10158) and nothing so far hasn't been totally wonderful: with Christmas Eve, Nympholept and the Overture to a Picaresque Comedy this disc is also another winner. As mentioned before, Chandos really should take a good hard look at their Bax catalogue, sort it out and box up all the orchestral and choral stuff, because as it is you have to go hunting around without initially knowing what is on which disc and it would be so easy to miss wonderful works such as In Memoriam. Let's face it, anyone who likes Bax likes Bax and would make space on their shelves for it whilst throwing out the boring old Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms (kidding). It's as simple as that. If they can repackage Martinu, Arnold, Halvorsen, Vaughan Williams film music, "Vienna Premiere", Richard Hickox, etc. they could certainly do the same for Bax and give us a nice, big, fat, handy box - so at least I wouldn't misplace the bloody discs...

 

I wish they would remaster the Thomson cycle.  I guess the rationale not to is they have another complete Bax cycle as well and that the pool of potential buyers of an "old" but remastered set is small.  But they did that with all the non-symphonic works to great effect as you say.  I'd buy a remastered Thomson set (but I'm not the best/non-biased person to ask!!).

[Albion]

I wish they would remaster the Thomson cycle.  I guess the rationale not to is they have another complete Bax cycle as well and that the pool of potential buyers of an "old" but remastered set is small.  But they did that with all the non-symphonic works to great effect as you say.  I'd buy a remastered Thomson set (but I'm not the best/non-biased person to ask!!).

I'd never have guessed!!! Ideally, they should simply shove their WHOLE Bax orchestral and choral repertoire into an ENORMOUS box, Thomson symphonies, Handley symphonies, Thomson tone poems, Handley tone poems, discs by Davis and Brabbins and everything including the kitchen sink (might as well pop in the chamber and instrumental works as well). I'm absolutely certain that it would sell (at least to me). I've reckoned up that it would take around 30 discs if they slotted in the unaccompanied choral music as well and juggled a bit, which doesn't seem that extravagant in the current climate of reissue (the same number of CDs as with the EMI "Collector's Edition" boxes of Elgar and Vaughan Williams): it would make a virtual "Bax Edition". Although I said that I found the Thomson symphonies too "washy" somehow I'd miss the "washiness" if they were tinkered with...

  

[vandermolen]

What do you think of Goossens No. 2?

Excellent - a fine performance. I have recordings on Dutton and Lyrita.

[Albion]

Onto volume 6 (CHAN x10159) now and hugely impressed with the maintenance of standards in repertoire, programming and performance. The Four Songs are great and beautifully sung by Martyn Hill: Bax's setting of This ae night is quite as powerful as those by Howard Ferguson and Benjamin Britten, whilst the Saga Fragment is very engaging with the composer in "legendary" mode, but jollier than usual. You even have Bax dabbling in (occasionally) pseudo-Elizabethan style in the manner of Peter Warlock's Capriol Suite during the incidental music to his brother's play The Golden Eagle, some rare stuff to set alongside the incidental music to The Truth About the Russian Dancers. Lovely.

 

[Karl Henning]

Interesting Baxian experience yesterday. In my short drive to work (8 minutes) Bax was on the radio there and back. 'Scherzo' (Handley) on my way in and 'The Garden of Fand' (Barbirolli) on my way home. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the Garden of Fand, which I'd been quite dismissive of before, finding it a bit twee and 'precious'. I was quite wrong! It is a fine, poetic and atmospheric score.

I should revisit that. Courtesy of an indirect prompt by @Roasted Swan I've enormously enjoyed Jn McL Williams' performances of the Violin Concerto (which I think I like better than the Vaughan Williams) and the third Violin Sonata.

[Albion]

Volume 7 now (CHAN 10209-2x), Winter Legends and the Symphonic Variations . I simply had to keep replaying the last movement of the former and the opening of Part 2 of the latter (The Temple) - utterly beautiful. I've not heard Ashley Wass on Naxos, but Margaret Fingerhut seems to me ideal in these large-scale Bax piano and orchestra works. Harriet Cohen apparently had quite small hands so it must have been an enormous challenge for her to grapple with these formidable scores. This must surely be one of the best-recorded installments in the series: there's clarity but ample weight and acoustic ambience, the balance is as good as I could imagine, fantastic playing and Thomson directs as though he's known these scores all his life. From strength to strength...

 

[relm1]

Excellent - a fine performance. I have recordings on Dutton and Lyrita.

I agree with you.  Though the audio isn't perfect, the interpretation is excellent.  And Raymond Leppard's Winter Legends might be my favorite.  It makes me hear similarities between Bax and late Scriabin.  This album is excellent with the impressive composer John McCabe on piano.  I truly love this album and highly recommend it if you can tolerate vintage audio.

[Roasted Swan]

Volume 7 now (CHAN 10209-2x), Winter Legends and the Symphonic Variations . I simply had to keep replaying the last movement of the former and the opening of Part 2 of the latter (The Temple) - utterly beautiful. I've not heard Ashley Wass on Naxos, but Margaret Fingerhut seems to me ideal in these large-scale Bax piano and orchestra works. Harriet Cohen apparently had quite small hands so it must have been an enormous challenge for her to grapple with these formidable scores. This must surely be one of the best-recorded installments in the series: there's clarity but ample weight and acoustic ambience, the balance is as good as I could imagine, fantastic playing and Thomson directs as though he's known these scores all his life. From strength to strength...

 

I agree about the quality of the Fingerhut performances but if you have a chance do hear the Wass as well - they are very fine too.  I like Wass in Bax generally - his Sonatas are cumbersome growling affairs with the first two especially unashamedly "big" and Romantic which is surely how they should be.  Not so long ago I finally got a CD copy of a recording I'd known from LP days of Joyce Hatto playing the Symphonic Variations.  My memory was that it was somewhat sub-standard but the CD proves me triumphantly wrong.  She plays very well, is decently recorded and with Handley on the podium you will always get Baxian insights (clearly it was my memory that was sub-standard.... not for the first time!!).  I seem to recall that at the time of that recording Cohen was still alive and very loath to allow Hatto see the original score so the recording was made only with access to the very flawed/old hire material which was riddled with mistakes and missing some passages (optionally cut by Bax but in the manuscript that Cohen had).  So by that measure it is even finer.

[Roasted Swan]

Onto volume 6 (CHAN x10159) now and hugely impressed with the maintenance of standards in repertoire, programming and performance. The Four Songs are great and beautifully sung by Martyn Hill: Bax's setting of This ae night is quite as powerful as those by Howard Ferguson and Benjamin Britten, whilst the Saga Fragment is very engaging with the composer in "legendary" mode, but jollier than usual. You even have Bax dabbling in (occasionally) pseudo-Elizabethan style in the manner of Peter Warlock's Capriol Suite during the incidental music to his brother's play The Golden Eagle, some rare stuff to set alongside the incidental music to The Truth About the Russian Dancers. Lovely.

 

My favourite amongst the songs is "Glamour" - OK its a bit of "the wee-folk fantasy" but I love the scale and range of the song.  The words are by Bax's alter-ego Dermot O'Byrne - he wrote the poem in 1910 but did not set it as a song until 1921 - so right at the high-noon of his creative flow.  Lewis Foreman included the piano version complete as an appendix at the back of his "Selected Poems of Arnold Bax" and that shows the genius and imagination of Bax's writing.  According to Foreman the original score contains annotations showing his intention to orchestrate the song - but he never did.  The version sung here is orchestrated by Rodney Newton and he has done a really effective job.  It was recorded in April 1988 and I wonder if it has been performed ever again since.......  Sad if not, it really is one of Bax's most easily engaging scores.

[vandermolen]

Here's the other CD release of Bax's 2nd Symphony conducted by Goossens, which also features a very fine (first recording I think) of 'Tintagel':

[Albion]

I really need to sort my CDs out: I just hunted high and low for half an hour convinced that I had Andrew Davis' "Four Orchestral Pieces", "Phantasy for Viola" and the "Overture, Elegy and Rondo" (CHAN 10829). I eventually discovered it hiding on a miscellaneous shelf for no apparent reason. I'm chaotic at the best of times, but plonking a Bax disc in the midst of compilation albums? I have no idea what was going on there. Anyway, it's now added to the pile along with Handley's "Concertante for Piano Left Hand", "In Memoriam", "The Bard of Dimbovitza" (CHAN 9715) and Brabbins' "London Pageant", "Concertante", "Tamara" and "Cathaleen-ni-Hoolihan" (CHAN 9879). Too much Bax? Er, nope...

 

Right, that's that little lot seen off (and 12 lovely discs they were) so it's symphony time. I think I'll plough through Handley first and then some of the Thomson. I gave my Lloyd Jones away a long time ago due to lack of space, but if Naxos saw fit to reissue them in a compact box (as they did with Malcolm Arnold) I would probably repurchase.

 

[Albion]

I agree about the quality of the Fingerhut performances but if you have a chance do hear the Wass as well - they are very fine too.  I like Wass in Bax generally - his Sonatas are cumbersome growling affairs with the first two especially unashamedly "big" and Romantic which is surely how they should be.  Not so long ago I finally got a CD copy of a recording I'd known from LP days of Joyce Hatto playing the Symphonic Variations.  My memory was that it was somewhat sub-standard but the CD proves me triumphantly wrong.  She plays very well, is decently recorded and with Handley on the podium you will always get Baxian insights (clearly it was my memory that was sub-standard.... not for the first time!!).  I seem to recall that at the time of that recording Cohen was still alive and very loath to allow Hatto see the original score so the recording was made only with access to the very flawed/old hire material which was riddled with mistakes and missing some passages (optionally cut by Bax but in the manuscript that Cohen had).  So by that measure it is even finer.

Fascinating. I well remember the "Hatto Affair" where she allegedly recorded virtually the whole of piano literature in a garden shed whilst expiring of cancer - and the critics (especially those in "Gramophone" and at the BBC) were taken in by this highly unlikely scenario. She was a decent enough pianist but suffered intensely from stage-fright. No doubt Vernon was very encouraging...

[JBS]

Right, that's that little lot seen off (and 12 lovely discs they were) so it's symphony time. I think I'll plough through Handley first and then some of the Thomson. I gave my Lloyd Jones away a long time ago due to lack of space, but if Naxos saw fit to reissue them in a compact box (as they did with Malcolm Arnold) I would probably repurchase.

 

You didn't know about this?


US release date is Jan 13.

[Albion]

You didn't know about this?


US release date is Jan 13.

Bloody Nora, completely missed that one! Right, that's definitely going to be ordered straight away. Many thanks!

 

[Albion]

I'm SO glad to see that Naxos have stuck to their original 7-disc format with one symphony per disc and all the coupling works intact. This makes it easy to go through the symphonies chronologically, whereas with both Thomson and Handley Chandos chopped around with the ordering purely for considerations of timing (and Thomson's 4th was ridiculously split between 2 CDs when they were reissued as a box). So Bravo to Naxos and I've already got my pre-order in so I'll be able to reassess this cycle...



...who knows, this may spur Chandos into a Bax repackaging frenzy!