This is assuredly an
evocative and gap-filling selection
of Bax recordings, a number of which
will probably be unfamiliar to, or unheard
by, even admirers of the composer. They
range from the sliver of a Fanfare for
a Cheerful Occasion, one of a number
of fanfares commissioned from British
composers for the Musicians Benevolent
Fund and recorded in 1932, to the film
music and Tintagel. Mater ora filium
for example is not the better-known
and later BBC/Leslie Woodgate recording,
which formed part of a famous Columbia
album set including the Viola Sonata
and Nonet. This rather is an early electric
October 1925 record with the Leeds Festival
Choir and was the first major Bax work
to be recorded. The Choir was a big
one, 250 strong, and the microphone
placement isn’t always sufficient to
bring the greatest clarity to the sound
but it’s impressive to hear the depth
of tone they produce and Albert Coates’
sweeping direction.
Perhaps the most sheerly
impressive performances come from Eugene
Goossens. He’d conducted at the famous
1922 concert sponsored by Murdoch &
Murdoch at Queen’s Hall where Lionel
Tertis, Harriet Cohen and John Coates
had all performed. This Tintagel
is treated to a disarmingly fast
and quiveringly intense and evocative
performance and one that makes most
others sound flabby. The 1928 sound
is no real impediment and the New Symphony
Orchestra plays with fire and expressive
nuance. Goossens’ sense of linear drama
and surging power brings out the eruptive
passion so much more viscerally than
conductors of our own time and it’s
the kind of performance all Baxians
should try to hear. The same goes for
the more sultry invitations of Mediterranean,
which as annotator Lewis Foreman rightly
observes has a "beguiling lilt."
Another Bax champion
was Hamilton Harty whose 1935 recording
of the Overture to a Picaresque Comedy
brings out its nascent Straussisms –
as well as some splendid portamenti
in its luscious central section. Symposium’s
documentation notes the band simply
as an "orchestra" and Harty
certainly did record for Columbia a
number of generic or pick up bands or
established ones flying under that flag
– but wasn’t this Beecham’s LPO? Harriet
Cohen is represented by the pretty Morning
Song; May Time in Sussex and the piano
theme for Oliver, the former with Sargent
in 1947, and the latter with Muir Mathieson
the following year complete with rippling
figuration. Bax’s film music is excellently
performed here though there are only
two cuts from Malta G.C. We began with
Fanfares and by a process of Baxian
symmetry we almost end with them – this
time those for the wedding of Prince
Philip and Princess Elizabeth, its depth
spiced by the composer utilising a passage
from Spring Fire. To finish we have
the June 1949 talk that Bax gave and
which preserves his speaking voice –
it’s well enough known in Bax circles
and beyond but splendid to have it in
the context of these first recordings.
The sleeve notes by
Lewis Foreman are characteristically
eloquent and the transfers have used
good quality originals. All inquisitive
Bax admirers should acquire.
Jonathan Woolf
see also review
by Rob Barnett
SYMPOSIUM RECORDS 1336 [78.24] 