There are at least
two other cycles of Bax’s piano works
available. Well, one is in the shops
and the other has to be hunted for in
the secondhand vinyl stores. Eric Parkin’s
account is still definitive. It is the
benchmark for all future recordings
of this music. However, my first encounter
with most of Bax’s piano music was the
set of four Lyrita albums recorded by
Iris Loveridge. (Why, Oh why Lyrita
do you not start re-issuing your extensive
back catalogue!) I still have these
records and I listened to a few of the
pieces recorded on this present disc.
Allowing for sound quality there is
still something amazing and moving about
these forty-odd year old recordings.
However the future
beckons - and another cycle of Bax’s
piano music is being issued. As a Bax
enthusiast I naturally regard any project
like this with great interest and pleasure.
Let’s just say this at the outset: Ashley
Wass justifies my excitement about this
issue at ever point.
Bax wrote prolifically
for the piano. He had a great facility
for the keyboard and was able to write
complex and technically difficult music
that is highly effective. Much of this
repertoire is of a romantic nature –
however his fascination with the Celtic
Fringe is obvious to anyone who pays
attention to his music. There are other
sources of interest: his trip to Ukraine
in 1910 generated quite a flurry of
works influenced by Russian music. And
of course there was Harriet Cohen.
The Sonata No 1
in F# major was composed in the
Ukraine. In 1910 Bax had gone there
in pursuit of a Russian girl, Natalia
Skarginska who had spurned him. She
subsequently re-married and was later
to die of typhoid. It is all revealed
to us in the composer’s autobiography.
This sonata is in one movement and owes
much to the model by Liszt. However
the actual sound of the music reminds
me of Scriabin and perhaps Balakirev.
The whole work is made up of constantly
shifting moods and tempi. Much use is
made of dark effects in the lower reaches
of the keyboard. There is little here
that a listener would regard as quiet
and tender. However there is a lyrical
theme that is marked ‘sospirando’ –
sighing - which adds some respite from
the prevailing mood. Lewis Foreman argues
that this is definitely not a picture
postcard view of Russia. It is much
more about a young man’s despair at
losing his love to another. The sonata
was revised in 1921.
I really enjoyed Ashley
Wass’s playing of this work. I am not
particularly interested in ‘learned’
comparison of timings between various
pianists. I just feel that on balance
I prefer this version to the other two
I have mentioned above. It is all about
emotion. Does the piece move me? This
recording certainly does.
The Sonata no.2
in G major is regarded by most commentators
as being the most accomplished. Certainly
is the best known of the four. It was
composed in 1919; it comes after a raft
of well-known compositions that portray
Russian and Celtic themes. The great
tone poems November Woods and
Tintagel were already under his
belt; the Russian Suite was the
last of the nods to the Ukraine. The
massive Symphonic Variations
had been composed the previous year
for Harriet Cohen. And finally the First
String Quartet had been written
just a couple of years previously.
The second sonata is
in one huge movement, owing its form
once again to Liszt. Perhaps the adjectives
‘grim’ and ‘menacing’ would be the best
description of the substance of this
music. Graham Parlett describes it as
‘dark and brooding.’ It is a complex
work. I have not studied the score but
I understand there are some five major
themes in this sonata. The texture is
thick and this thickness adds to the
gloom. Here and there an allusion to
folk song makes itself heard. Harriet
Cohen described it as ‘an epic conception,
this time taking the form of a contest
between a legendary hero and the powers
of darkness’. The programme notes suggest
that it may be the composer’s response
to the events of Easter 1916.
Ashley Wass controls
the complexities of this difficult sonata
with great skill. This is a work that
is in danger of sounding dark from start
to finish. Yet there is opportunity
for a great variety of nuanced playing.
Wass takes every opportunity to present
this contradictory masterpiece as the
magical yet foreboding work that it
is. It was revised by Bax in 1920.
The gorgeous ‘Dream
in Exile’ (1916) is dedicated
‘affectionately’ to Bax’s piano teacher
Tobias Matthay. The work was originally
to be called Capriccio and then
later Intermezzo, which title
is included in the entry in Graham Parlett’s
catalogue. However, the music fits neither
of these two titles. There is certainly
nothing of the ‘intermezzo’ about this
piece. Much of it is in two parts, creating
quite a Spartan texture. It is only
in the more animated central section
that the musical density is increased.
A quotation of a motif
that was later used in the tone poem
November Woods is worked into
this piece. It is redolent of regret
and longing. The work begins and ends
simply and is full of questions. This
music is a dreamscape – wistful and
melancholic dreams of some ‘Land of
Lost Content’.
One of the phenomena
of the middle decades of the 20th
century was Murdoch and Murdoch. As
a company they did much to promote British
Music. I recall first coming across
their imprint whilst looking into the
music of John Blackwood McEwen. The
present Burlesque was
the very first work to be published
by this company in 1920. It is a short
piece that reveals a number of interesting
characteristics about Bax in his milieu.
Firstly there is what might be called
a ‘tune’ that crops up all over the
keyboard. Secondly there is a definite
nod to Stravinsky and in particular
Petrushka. There is nothing subtle
about this work. The key changes are
coarse and the constant change of metre
between common and waltz time make for
deliberate ambiguity. There is of course
a quieter moment towards the conclusion
but the prevailing style is ‘knockabout.’
We hear Bax’s sense of humour coupled
to his virtuosic keyboard technique.
Altogether a good piece – although do
not expect a masterpiece.
Nereid (1916)
is all Harriet Cohen! It was originally
called Ideala and was dedicated
to her. To my ears it is the most attractive
of the miniatures on this disk. It is
impressionistic – no doubts about that.
I detect nods to Debussy throughout.
Bax himself was a little disparaging
about it; he said that it is ‘nothing
but tone colour.’ And of course perhaps
he is correct. There is a recurring
rhythmic figure that underlies the entire
piece – the interest is expressed above
this flowing undercurrent. Colin Scott-Sutherland
describes it as a ‘graceful aquatint’.
Just for the record the Nereids were
sea maidens and were daughters of Nereus
– The Old Man of the Sea. Curiously
Naxos gives 1919 as the date of this
work, whereas Parlett’s Catalogue states
1916.
There is no doubt that
this is lovely sound – although I do
think that the structure of the work
is a little loose. However, Ashley Wass
is able to create a suitably ‘liquid’
style that is absolutely convincing
for this little known piece.
In a Vodka Shop
is a fun piece. It was composed
as part of Bax’s offerings to the nineteen
year old Harriet Cohen. He had met her
at a tea party in 1915 and had immediately
become smitten. Bax is reputed to have
written To a Maiden with a Daffodil
overnight. However this present work
along with the Princess’s Rose Garden
was to follow a few weeks later.
This Russian ‘souvenir’
is a pastiche if there was ever one.
It is actually a vulgar dance with a
couple of brave attempts to establish
a ‘good’ tune and a few quieter moments.
However the fierce, thumping element
wins through. Scott-Sutherland describes
the work as having a ‘robust and clattering
vitality’. The work was actually dedicated
to Myra Hess, who gave the work its
first performance at the Grafton Galleries
in London on 29th April 1915.
The composer later orchestrated it as
the third movement of his Russian
Suite (1919)
Ashley Wass is an old
boy of Chetham’s School in Manchester.
He won a scholarship to study at the
Royal Academy of Music with Christopher
Elton and Hamish Milne. He is certainly
seen as a rising star –only the second
British pianist in twenty years to reach
the finals of the Leeds Piano Competition
(2000) and the first ever to win the
World Piano Competition in 1997.
This present disk adds
to Wass’s growing reputation. Bax is
not the easiest of composer’s to play
- either technically or interpretively.
He handles all the problems with great
skill and force. It is a bold step to
embark on a recording of the complete
works of this composer and I look forward
to the succeeding issues with great
interest.
The programme notes,
are predictably written by that great
Bax (and English Music) scholar, Lewis
Foreman. They tell us virtually all
we need to know to be able to enjoy
and understand these works.
The CD sounds good
and is definitely enhanced by the erotic
painting on the cover by Max Klinger
– ‘Triton and Nereid (1895).’
John France
see also review
by Graham Parlett
Colin
Clarke interviews Ashley Wass
Arnold
Bax web-site
Ashley Wass, piano 