VERNON HANDLEY RECORDS
BAX TONE POEMS AND
SINFONIETTA
Conductor Vernon Handley
was in Studio 7 at BBC Manchester with
the BBC Philharmonic and the familiar
Manchester team of engineer Stephen
Rinker and producers Mike George and
Brian Pidgeon for a vintage recording
session of his favourite Bax on 19 to
21 April. Thus we had the familiar tone-poems
In the Faery Hills, November
Woods and The Garden of Fand
with the Sinfonietta of 1932.
The whole programme
had been rehearsed on the first day,
and over the next two days each piece
was recorded in a morning or afternoon
session. This was a recording of performances,
Handley’s method being to record complete
takes – three in each case –followed
by a small number of patches for any
areas of difficulty. I did not hear
the rehearsal but it should be said
these recording sessions were of astonishing
quality, the level of playing, even
of first takes, superlative in every
department, and Handley brought a lifetime’s
experience to readings of remarkable
eloquence.
The Sinfonietta (the
score is headed ‘Symphonic Fantasy’)
was by a long way the least familiar
piece on the programme, Handley – ‘Tod’
to all – taking a minute and a half
off his world premiere performance in
Cardiff back in 1983. This is more elusive
music, yet the combination of top-line
playing and Tod’s virile view of the
score after 22 years will make it essential
for all Baxians, standing as it does
between the mature world of the late
symphonies and the more occasional later
scores.
Still on two sticks
fifteen months after his Munich taxi
accident, Tod was on good form with
typical good natured wisecracks and
comments. On being asked for a cue he
responded ‘I shall lean over you with
this big stick’, and after a take of
the dancing music in In the Faery
Hills commented ‘people who dance
it are in different stages of drink’!
Asking a player to play up in a melodic
passage he urged ‘Enjoy it’ and on receiving
an assent added ‘Oh good, enjoy it more!’.
The second day we had
the big ones: an absolutely riveting
November Woods and vintage The
Garden of Fand. Remembering November
Woods had been rehearsed two days
before, at 10.00am they went on and
made a tremendous first take, straight-off
– heard in the concert hall it would
have had everyone out of their seats.
Phenomenal that the orchestra could
produce such a performance without warming
up. As Tod remarked to the players:
‘That was a magnificent interpretation,
I was glad to be present!’ Although
it was a broad view of the piece at
20’20", the music seemed as urgent
and stormy as ever, the gales in running
woodwind semi-quavers wonderfully articulated
and phrased. The BBC copy of the score
contained pencilled notes of pre-war
performances and timings, according
to which Sir Adrian gave four performances
between February 1931 and February 1951
in the range 16’15" to 18’45",
while Sir Henry Wood on 26 January 1939
was timed at 18½ minutes. All present
felt that Handley and the Philharmonic
had contributed something special, indeed
I am sure that many will find it the
high point of a distinguished programme.
The final afternoon
brought us to The Garden of Fand
which ran a little over 17 minutes (this
was another BBC Library score documenting
previous performances from which we
could see Sir Henry Wood had done it
in 15’15" in September 1931, while
Dohnanyi, no less, had taken 17½’ in
February 1936, and Warwick Braithwaite
and the LSO 18 minutes in 1950). Here
Tod and the orchestra unfolded Bax’s
vision with masterly flow. Especially
interesting was hearing the added emotional
impact given to the opening pages when
Handley balanced up the basses – the
undertow in the orchestral evocation
of the ocean – explaining ‘when the
basses enter the winds recede to ostinato’.
This was a BBC joint session with Chandos,
the programme making an essential pendant
to Handley’s acclaimed Chandos box set
of the symphonies, though an issue date
has yet to be announced.
LEWIS FOREMAN
