Sir Arnold Bax

[Roasted Swan]

I made a 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!

Erm..... 7 other Symphonies (since you include the student Symphony in F).  And since you also include incidental music you should probably include Malta GC and Oliver Twist.  Nos.40 & 41 are the same work

[Maestro267]

Wow that's a shocking omission! Bax's 7 greatest works completely gone from that list!

[lordlance]

Erm..... 7 other Symphonies (since you include the student Symphony in F).  And since you also include incidental music you should probably include Malta GC and Oliver Twist.  Nos.40 & 41 are the same work

Heh a "slight" omission. The truth is the list was originally a list of all orchestral pieces as a to do list. I didn't add the symphonies because they were incredibly obvious.

I have repurposed the note to become a chronological lis of purely orchestral music.

I shall add the symphonies later. Thank you for pointing out the duplication.

[relm1]

Sir Edward Downes was such a fantastic conductor.  I always felt Bax's No. 3 was bombastic but here it's so impressionistic.  So delicate and lovey, I feel like I've never heard this music before it is so beautifully presented.  This is a very fine interpretation.

[Daverz]

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?)

Initially I read "wore the single daffodil" as "wore only a daffodil".  I think Harriet Cohen could have pulled it off.

[Karl Henning]

Initially I read "wore the single daffodil" as "wore only a daffodil".  I think Harriet Cohen could have pulled it off.

Cheeky!

[vandermolen]

Sir Edward Downes was such a fantastic conductor.  I always felt Bax's No. 3 was bombastic but here it's so impressionistic.  So delicate and lovey, I feel like I've never heard this music before it is so beautifully presented.  This is a very fine interpretation.

Yes it's by far my favourite interpretation. I agree with relm 1 that it has a unique quality to it - a kind of dream-like atmosphere, missing in every other recording. The university record library had a copy and they had a room with a turntable and headphones for private listening in which I spent many happy hours as a student listening to Downes's recording of Bax's Third Symphony (the DGG LP featuring MTT's recording of Ives's 'Three Places in New England' was the other one). The Downes Bax recording gets a bad press and, much to my annoyance, was never released on CD. I communicated with Lyrita about it as at one time they were considering releasing it on CD but it never happened. When I emailed them about hoping that it would be released on CD I had a reply from Lyrita stating 'my father hopes so too'. I assumed that the father was another Bax fan until ages later I realised that the man I was emailing was called Caractacus Downes - the son of Edward Downes!

[relm1]

Yes it's by far my favourite interpretation. I agree with relm 1 that it has a unique quality to it - a kind of dream-like atmosphere, missing in every other recording. The university record library had a copy and they had a room with a turntable and headphones for private listening in which I spent many happy hours as a student listening to Downes's recording of Bax's Third Symphony (the DGG LP featuring MTT's recording of Ives's 'Three Places in New England' was the other one). The Downes Bax recording gets a bad press and, much to my annoyance, was never released on CD. I communicated with Lyrita about it as at one time they were considering releasing it on CD but it never happened. When I emailed them about hoping that it would be released on CD I had a reply from Lyrita stating 'my father hopes so too'. I assumed that the father was another Bax fan until ages later I realised that the man I was emailing was called Caractacus Downes - the son of Edward Downes!

Wow, that's an amazing little gem of a story! 

[Roasted Swan]

Yes it's by far my favourite interpretation. I agree with relm 1 that it has a unique quality to it - a kind of dream-like atmosphere, missing in every other recording. The university record library had a copy and they had a room with a turntable and headphones for private listening in which I spent many happy hours as a student listening to Downes's recording of Bax's Third Symphony (the DGG LP featuring MTT's recording of Ives's 'Three Places in New England' was the other one). The Downes Bax recording gets a bad press and, much to my annoyance, was never released on CD. I communicated with Lyrita about it as at one time they were considering releasing it on CD but it never happened. When I emailed them about hoping that it would be released on CD I had a reply from Lyrita stating 'my father hopes so too'. I assumed that the father was another Bax fan until ages later I realised that the man I was emailing was called Caractacus Downes - the son of Edward Downes!

What do you think his favourite choral work was?? 

[vandermolen]

What do you think his favourite choral work was?? 

HAHA 

[vandermolen]

Maybe of interest:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2007/oct/11/buildingaclassicalmusiclib4

[Roasted Swan]

Maybe of interest:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2007/oct/11/buildingaclassicalmusiclib4

You hope when reading an article like this (albeit from 2007) that because it is in a major national paper it will be written with insight and a degree of musical authority.  Then you read that Bryden Thomson's Symphony No.2 is "pioneering" pace Myer Fredman let alone Eugene Goossens.  So in other words its an ignorantly written article by someone with enthusiasm but little real knowledge.  Are we meant to be grateful for small mercies....

[Roasted Swan]

Today, semi-randomly, I was listening to "Christmas Eve on the Mountains" in a YouTube performance;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAXIV75Tk8w

This is a very rare (only??) BBC broadcast performance of the original 1912 tone-poem that was revised around 1921 (slightly shortened and according to Graham Parlett; "there are many minor changes of harmony rhythm and instrumentation").  Even the revised work (renamed just "Christmas Eve") is all but never played and only once recorded as the coupling for Bryden Thomson's Symphony No.1 in 1986 (it reappeared as part of Vol.5 of the remastered orchestral works series - but the same performance).  But this is a really fine piece of early Bax.  The main theme came to Bax apparently while walking in the hills near Dublin at Christmas around 1911.  Its not a "Celtic Twilight" score but it certainly has a mystical/visionary quality crowned by a rather heroic organ solo.  Its utter neglect on disc let alone in concert is surprising as it is an attractive work if you already enjoy Bax's lush Romanticism.  According to Parlett the opening theme is based on the Credo from Bach's B minor Mass - spot it if you can!

Then finding myself on a bit of a Bax run I listened to this disc;



Not as complete as the Chandos equivalent disc but I do like this performance which does suggest that Bax in the 1940's was not completely "written out" as both scores have attractive and effective cues.  Perhaps not absolute vintage Bax but still very enjoyable.  The stirring closing March for Malta GC was reused in the 1953 Coronation March which really was just about the last piece he wrote.  Curiously that march was never recorded as part of the Chandos Bax edition and as far as I know was only ever recorded once in mono for Decca - it does pitch up on some old collections now and again but could do with a modern version for sure

[vandermolen]

Today, semi-randomly, I was listening to "Christmas Eve on the Mountains" in a YouTube performance;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAXIV75Tk8w

This is a very rare (only??) BBC broadcast performance of the original 1912 tone-poem that was revised around 1921 (slightly shortened and according to Graham Parlett; "there are many minor changes of harmony rhythm and instrumentation").  Even the revised work (renamed just "Christmas Eve") is all but never played and only once recorded as the coupling for Bryden Thomson's Symphony No.1 in 1986 (it reappeared as part of Vol.5 of the remastered orchestral works series - but the same performance).  But this is a really fine piece of early Bax.  The main theme came to Bax apparently while walking in the hills near Dublin at Christmas around 1911.  Its not a "Celtic Twilight" score but it certainly has a mystical/visionary quality crowned by a rather heroic organ solo.  Its utter neglect on disc let alone in concert is surprising as it is an attractive work if you already enjoy Bax's lush Romanticism.  According to Parlett the opening theme is based on the Credo from Bach's B minor Mass - spot it if you can!

Then finding myself on a bit of a Bax run I listened to this disc;



Not as complete as the Chandos equivalent disc but I do like this performance which does suggest that Bax in the 1940's was not completely "written out" as both scores have attractive and effective cues.  Perhaps not absolute vintage Bax but still very enjoyable.  The stirring closing March for Malta GC was reused in the 1953 Coronation March which really was just about the last piece he wrote.  Curiously that march was never recorded as part of the Chandos Bax edition and as far as I know was only ever recorded once in mono for Decca - it does pitch up on some old collections now and again but could do with a modern version for sure

Christmas Eve (AKA Christmas Eve in the Mountains) is a favourite, largely unknown, work by Bax, which I find hauntingly beautiful. Interesting to hear about the different versions. I'm not a fan of the film music.

[tjguitar]

It's cool to see how many of these threads that I started eons ago are still active. I haven't listened to Bax in YEARS.

[Roasted Swan]

One of the choices for this month's free FLAC download from Naxos is this fine disc;

[Albion]

When, oh when will Chandos have the wit to collect ALL of their Bax recordings into a lovely big box? By my reckoning, including both symphony cycles (Thomson and Handley), it would take about 30 discs which is certainly manageable and would prove the company's immense commitment to the composer's incredible legacy...

[Irons]

When, oh when will Chandos have the wit to collect ALL of their Bax recordings into a lovely big box? By my reckoning, including both symphony cycles (Thomson and Handley), it would take about 30 discs which is certainly manageable and would prove the company's immense commitment to the composer's incredible legacy...

Not only Bax but of historical significance to the legacy of Chandos Records. From the outset Chandos championed Arnold Bax with one of the first if not the first digital recording the label made of Tone Poems with Thompson and Ulster Orchestra in June 1982. I don't think it fanciful to say Bax unbeknown to himself to be an early pioneer to what Chandos Records are today.

[Uhor]

The beginning of the Third Symphony always reminded me of the Beeethoven 14th String quartet opening fugue, so my friend combined both with Bartok's Music for Strings Percussion and Celesta. It seems the Bax glues everything toghether and has its own climatic moments alone!

[kyjo]

One of the choices for this month's free FLAC download from Naxos is this fine disc;

A magnificent disc! Bax's ability to conjure up fantastically wintry soundscapes in Winter Legends is second only to Sibelius. And the two "fillers" are wonderful too - the relatively brief but epic Saga Fragment and the charming Morning Song (Maytime in Sussex).