Bax’s First Piano Sonata
has quite a convoluted history, as can
be seen from the inscription at the
end of the published score: ‘Written
in Russia | Summer 1910 | Revised 1917-1921’.
It was originally composed as a Romantic
Tone-Poem during the composer’s extended
sojourn in Russia and the Ukraine in
vain pursuit of the beautiful Natalia
Skarginska, and the final pages are
a recollection of church bells heard
in St Petersburg at Easter 1910. The
work was performed in this version by
Myra Hess in 1911, and eight years later,
in October 1919, she played it again,
this time under the title ‘Symphonic
Phantasy’. In June 1920 Harriet Cohen
performed it under the title ‘Sonata’,
and finally, in 1921, it was moulded
into its final shape and published the
following year.
The first recording
of the work, by Iris Loveridge, came
out on a Lyrita LP in 1959, and there
have since been performances from Frank
Merrick, Joyce Hatto, Marie-Catherine
Girod, Eric Parkin and, most recently,
Joseph Long (on a privately-issued CD).
Wass favours generally
broad tempi in this work, as also in
the Second Sonata, but, unlike some
other slower performances (I shall refrain
from mentioning any names), this one
has a sense of forward momentum, and
the pianist’s skilful use of light and
shade in his playing, coupled with a
close adherence to the dynamics written
in the score, adds to this impression.
The Non troppo lento passage
on p.5 (beginning at 2:08) is certainly
slower than I have ever heard it, but
this is compensated for by the expressiveness
of the playing. And this is one of the
great things about the performances
on this CD: Wass has a real flair for
bringing out the poetry behind the notes
without pulling the music to pieces
and distorting the general flow; and
he is certainly never dull. Although
he is seldom barnstorming (as in Michael
Endres’s performances of this work in
Germany), he can certainly play with
passion and ruggedness when required.
I especially liked the gradual acceleration
that begins on p.18 (at 12:39 ), and
the final page, with its molto pesante
pounding octaves, is played with tremendous
power. Wass pays greater attention to
Bax’s dynamic and expressive markings
than many previous performers, and I
am glad to see that he correctly interprets
the composer’s curved brackets in front
of chords as indicators of arpeggiation;
many pianists mistakenly think that
they mean the opposite: perhaps not
surprisingly considering that Bax alternates
them with squiggly lines seemingly at
random, as in the Second Piano Sonata,
where he uses both methods of notation
in the same bar (the fourth of p.14).
That the round bracket does represent
arpeggiation is confirmed in Gardner
Read’s book on musical notation and
by the fact that Bax often uses the
sign in front of chords, such as triads,
that a pianist would otherwise naturally
play unspread.
The Second Sonata (published
in 1921, a year before its predecessor)
has been recorded by most of the pianists
mentioned above, together with Peter
Cooper (on a Pye LP and cassette) and
John McCabe (on a Continuum CD). At
just under 28 minutes, Wass’s performance
of this work is again on the slow side,
but listening to this rapt, concentrated
account of one of Bax’s greatest piano
works I was held in thrall from the
first note to the last. The composer
told Frank Merrick that the score ‘in
some degree typified a struggle between
good and evil’, and this sense of strife
is well brought out in Wass’s performance.
The sinister opening pages are played
comparatively straight: that is to say
the pianist manages to conjure up the
dark atmosphere without resorting to
theatrical exaggeration, and the doom-laden
repeated chords starting on p.2 (around
0:51) are played with a kind of icy
disdain. The difficult transition from
this slow-moving, oppressive morass
of sound towards the ‘Brazen and glittering’
Moderato eroico is very well managed.
The speed for this new section strikes
me as being just right, and the pianist
brings out the very Russian-sounding
quality of the music, with its rich,
scrunchy chords and piercing fanfares.
The ensuing Allegro moderato section
is again slower than in many previous
performances, but it also has an attractive
ebb and flow. The Lento starting on
p.14 ( 10:18 ) is marked ‘very still
and concentrated’, and this is exactly
how Wass plays it: you could, as it
were, hear a pin drop. I was initially
surprised that he takes the Vivace at
13:37 so steadily; but the word means
‘lively’, after all, not ‘fast’, and
he certainly makes the passage sound
rhythmically alive. The passage beginning
around 16:51, with the left-hand marked
‘p like a Tuba’, is beautifully managed,
and the return of the Moderato eroico,
now marked Molto largamente, brings
a real sense of achievement, the forces
of good having finally triumphed over
evil. The whole of the final section,
with its slow build-up to a fortissimo
climax and then a gradual diminuendo,
is quite mesmerising. In short, this
is one of the very best performances
of the sonata that I have heard.
The four other pieces
on this disc are also played with great
skill. Again, Dream in Exile is slower
than in previous accounts, but it also
has more depth of feeling. I have certainly
never heard a better performance of
Burlesque, a knockabout piece which
Wass plays with just the right kind
of light touch and sense of fun. After
the cool limpidity of Nereid, which
is most sensitively done, the recital
finishes with a splendid performance
of In a Vodka Shop, that ‘alcoholic
slander’ on the Russian way of life,
as a Soviet music critic once called
it; he would undoubtedly have been outraged
by Wass’s boisterous account of it.
The quality of Naxos’s
recorded sound here is very good indeed,
and the detailed notes are by Lewis
Foreman. I was most impressed by this
first instalment in Ashley Wass’s cycle
of Bax’s complete piano works and look
forward to the remaining volumes with
keen anticipation.
Graham Parlett
Arnold
Bax web-site
Ashley Wass(piano) 