A new Bax release, especially with a premiere recording, is particularly welcome. This is all the more the case when the standard of performance is so captivating and the recorded sound so vivid. In fact I have taken this recording as one of my choices for 2014. My reasons are expanded here since this album arrived when I was away from home and I have had little time to write.
The premiere recording is of the
Four Orchestral Pieces of 1912-13; clearly an early work, inspired by the countryside around Rathgar, Dublin. Being an incurable romantic, I was particularly impressed with the lovely atmospheric sound-picture that is the opening movement, ‘Pensive Twilight’ — “Music of gentle, refined melancholy” as one critic described it. Equally affecting is the third movement ‘In the Hills of Home’ scored for divided strings and harp with solo violin — a lush musical love-letter to an early girlfriend. The ‘Dance in the Sun’ movement is a pleasant piece but slight. The ‘Dance of Wild Irravel’, the concluding movement, including music in waltz-time sounds quite modern for its era. In fact it anticipates Ravel’s
La Valse.
The
Phantasy for Viola and Orchestra created quite a lot of interest when the work was premiered. Very few composers had attempted to create a concerto for viola. Philip Dukes’ instrument sings poignantly and beguilingly throughout. This is a work that reflects the composer’s feelings about the political turmoil going on in Ireland at the time. In fact at its climax there is a quotation from the Sinn Fein marching song.
The
Overture, Elegy and Rondo is a more mature work, written between his Second and Third Symphonies. Romance is restrained and the sound-world rather modern. The opening movement looks back to 18
th century musical traditions — a tradition Bax had previously disparaged — although dressed in Bax’s more vivid twentieth century orchestrations. The Elegy sounds quite spooky and spiky while the concluding Rondo opens cheerfully with a fanfare-
like melody. It ends exuberantly but there is a broodingly pensive section in the middle.
A very welcome addition to the Bax discography.
Ian Lace
Previous reviews:
Michael Cookson and
Rob Barnett
A very welcome addition to the Bax discography.
