Sir Arnold Bax Website  

EDITORIAL  

April, 2009

The Sorry State of Bax’s Scores

The Symphonic Variations -- a case in point.  

An Editorial by

Richard R. Adams 

While speaking with both pianist Ashley Wass and conductor James Judd during a break in last year’s recording sessions of Bax’s Symphonic Variations for Naxos, I asked both musicians what they thought of that work and both agreed it is one of the few really great bravura British piano concertos from any era and both expressed amazement that it is so little known.   What is evident from listening to their newly issued recording is that the Symphonic Variations does indeed have the potential to become a popular score if it weren’t for one problem -- the score itself.   

Those who know the history of the Symphonic Variations will be aware that it was written for Bax’s mistress, Harriet Cohen, who gave the work its premiere in 1920 and who refused to allow other pianists to play it during most of her lifetime.  She kept a copy of the score in her London flat, which was bombed during a WW II German air raid. Many of her belongings were destroyed and the Symphonic Variations score was badly burned and for many years was thought unplayable until orchestral parts were located and a complete score was re-assembled in 1962.   It was around that same time that the Symphonic Variations was published in a two-piano printed version and it is this edition that pianists must still use to learn their part.   The conductor’s score and orchestral parts are from Bax’s handwritten full score that includes his little note indicating where he was in the scoring when the Armistice was announced in 1918. Several pages of the conductor’s score still show the burn marks as well.   

Ashley Wass became familiar with the Symphonic Variations when he was learning and recording the Bax sonatas and he told me he immediately fell in love with it.  It took time for Naxos to raise the funds for this recording but as soon as the green light was given, Wass requested a copy of the score.  “I was sent the conductor's score - handwritten and completely unusable, of course - about a year before the sessions were scheduled to take place,” he said. “I immediately asked Warner/Chappell if they could provide something more legible and they requested I send the score back to them so that they could 'tidy it up'. I returned it swiftly but heard nothing from them for several months (despite Naxos continually chasing them on my behalf). The only communication I did receive was a bizarre letter some 6 months later in which Chappell threatened to fine me several thousand pounds - someone in their hire department thought I still had the score and was claiming it was massively overdue! The fact they couldn't communicate internally hardly filled me with confidence that they'd eventually provide me with something I could use! I continued to chase via Naxos and eventually the librarian in Bournemouth got wind of the situation and sent me a score to work from. Finally, as you know, Graham Parlett stepped in with the 2-piano edition, and all was well! I never did hear anything from Chappell.”  

It is truly an indication of Wass’s love for the music that he was willing to proceed with the project despite the terrible support he received from Bax’s publisher.   Conductor James Judd and the Bournemouth players didn’t have it any easier as they all had to work from copies of Bax’s handwritten originals.  I’ve been to enough of these recordings now to appreciate just how well British orchestral players can sight-read anything and do it at performance standard on first glance.  But even these great musicians have their limits and I heard much grumbling from the players at having to read illegible parts with notes and indications that didn’t match those in the conductor’s score.   An unbelievable amount of time was spent during the recordings having to correct parts and Mr. Judd really did have his hands full trying to coax a sympathetic performance from players who were becoming increasingly frustrated with having to stop and fix wrong notes.  I left those sessions in awe of James Judd – both for his musicianship, patience and skill at being able to keep everyone together and secure such a thrilling interpretation.   The producer, Andrew Walton, deserves credit too as he made sure no mistakes got by.     

Anyone listening to this new recording of the Symphonic Variations is sure to sense Ashley Wass’s absolute devotion to the music. He plays with all the passion, power and sensitivity that this mammoth work demands.  He told me during the sessions that he’d love to play the Symphonic Variations at a Prom where he thinks it would go over extremely well but he said convincing another conductor and orchestra to burden themselves with working from such unreadable parts would make a performance unlikely as managements are not inclined to spend a lot of extra time and money on a work that isn’t a guaranteed crowd pleaser.  James Judd agreed.  He said as long as the Symphonic Variations remains in its deplorable condition, there’s little chance of it being played live which is regrettable, he added, because he believes it to be among Bax’s most immediately appealing scores that would be sure to go down well with a Proms audience.     

For now, we can enjoy the recording, which I think is the most exciting new Bax disc to be released since Tod Handley’s edition of the symphonies in 2003.  I suppose I’m so excited about it because it has caused me to reevaluate my opinion of the Symphonic Variations, which up until I heard Wass play it last year had always struck me as just a bit too languorous and, well, long.  Previous recordings have been good but nothing like this new disc which burns at a much higher intensity.   Fingerhut is a superb pianist and a great Baxian as her performances of the sonatas have indicated, but her playing on the Chandos recording lacks the sheer strength that Wass so effortlessly summons.    Joyce Hatto’s pioneering disc from the early 1970s with Tod Handley and his Guildford Symphony Orchestra has personality to spare but neither her playing nor the playing of the orchestra can match the professionalism of Wass or the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra on Naxos.  

And with Wass, you also get the Left-Hand Concertante, which he plays with total conviction and somehow manages to make it sound a far more engaging piece than it does in any previous recordings of it that I’ve heard.  There is no denying that the heart of this work is the central movement, which to me sounds like a valentine to its dedicatee, Harriet Cohen again.   Here Bax shows that he could still work his magic and the main tune is near impossible to get out of one’s head once it’s been heard.   The outer movements may not be as inspired but Wass and Judd still manage to find all the charm inherent in the music despite.   

All this brings me to my final point.  Wass, Judd, the Bournemouth players, producer Walton and Naxos have issued a magnificent new recording of one of Bax’s greatest but least appreciated works.   I suspect reviews will be great and I’m sure many people will be asking why this work hasn’t been performed live in so many years.   Wass is doing what he can to interest orchestral managements in programming it and hopefully he’ll succeed as it is a work tailor made for a concert audience.   But what is regrettable is that any performance that comes about as a result of this recording will do so in spite of the Bax’s publisher.   Warner/Chappell has shown virtually no interest in their catalog of Bax and indeed has treated it with neglect and disdain…how else you can explain their loss of the orchestral parts of such significant Bax scores a “The Happy Forest” and “Oliver Twist?”  Handley’s recent recording of “Happy Forest” only came about because a set of parts were found in the Bournemouth Symphony’s library.   The parts for the complete score to “Oliver Twist” are already missing despite it having been reconstructed and recorded less than 10 years ago.  Who knows what else has gone missing?   An inventory of Bax’s scores is long overdue but it is unlikely to take place until Warner/Chappell determines there is some value in maintaining and promoting Bax’s music.  

Bax’s standing in the concert hall won’t improve until his music is made more readily available.  Publishers are going to focus their efforts on behalf of those composers whose music sells.   Many British composers have Trusts to raise funds to help finance new editions of their music but in Bax’s case, he again seems to be at a disadvantage because the Bax Trust appears to be very inactive these days.  Perhaps they’ve run out of money or are more focused on financing recordings of yet-to-be recorded Bax works but whatever the reason, the Trust doesn’t appear to have played much of a role in working with Warner/Chappell to issue out-of-print scores or newly edited parts.   Or – perhaps they have but were met with the same disorganization and lack of interest that Wass encountered and have therefore given up.    Who could blame them?  

Richard R. Adams

Previous Editorials:

• Vernon Handley- An Appreciation

• Welcome Back Lyrita

• A Note on Bax's Northern Ballads by Graham Parlett

• Future Events, editorial by Richard Adams

• A Triumphant Return to Manchester by Richard Adams

• December 2004 Are Bax advocates doing enough? By Richard Adams

• May 2004 Editorial on Bax Concert and CD Activity by Richard Adams

• January 2004 Sir Arnold Bax: Complete symphonies (1922-39), Overture: Rogue’s Comedy (1936), Tintagel (1919), BBC Philharmonic Orchestra/Vernon Handley' CHANDOS CHAN 10122 A Commentary by Ian Lace

• November 2003- New and Improved Arnold Bax Website, details and appreciation by Richard R. Adams