Curio Corner
If Only They Had Written (More!) for Films
– Arnold Bax (1883-1953).
Arnold BAX
Symphony No. 3 The Happy Forest
David Lloyd –Jones conducting
the Royal Scottish National Orchestra
NAXOS 8.553608
[53:33]
Crotchet
Symphony No. 5 The Tale the Pine-Trees Knew
David Lloyd-Jones conducting
the Royal Scottish National Orchestra
NAXOS 8.554509
[57:51]
Crotchet
Symphony No. 4 Tintagel
Bryden Thomson conducting
the Ulster Orchestra
CHANDOS CHAN 8312
[57:05]
Crotchet
Tone Poems: The Garden of Fand; November Woods; The Happy Forest;
Summer Music.
Bryden Thomson conducting
the Ulster Orchestra
CHANDOS CHAN 8307
[65:32]
Amazon UK
I am bending the rules slightly to accommodate Sir Arnold Bax as one who
"If Only They Had Written for Films" because he wrote so little for the medium
(Malta GC [1943]; Oliver Twist [1948]; and Journey into
History [1948]). By this time he was in his sixties and had retired to
live in a room above a pub in Storrington, in West Sussex a county in southern
England. One wonders what wonderful scores he might have written if he had
been commissioned in the 1920s and 1930s when he was in his prime but then,
of course, original scores were just beginning to be required as the "talkies"
developed through the 1930s. Imagine, for instance, all the drama and ferocity
of the 1st and 2nd Symphonies channelled into scoring
a film about the Irish Uprising or about Michael Collins!
I am featuring Bax because a new recording on the budget label Naxos has
just been released following their release of probably Bax’s most accessible
Symphony No. 3 last year (Naxos is committed to releasing all seven Bax
Symphonies conducted by David Lloyd-Jones). All Bax symphonies are highly
dramatic and emotional and redolent of the wild landscapes and seascapes,
and myths and legends of Ireland and the north west of Scotland. The
3rd Symphony is all of this with as one observer commented, "one
of the greatest climaxes in modern music" culminating in a huge anvil stroke.
The Epilogue is one of the most memorable episodes in British music, a rare
haunting and mystical experience which the composer described in these words,
" I suddenly became aware that I was listening to strange sounds, the like
of which I had never heard before. They can only be described as a kind of
mingling of rippling water and tiny bells tinkled’. [Click here for
a review of the new recording of the 5th Symphony.]
Probably Bax’s most famous work is his tone poem Tintagel. This
is a turbulent picture of the waters crashing against the cliffs beneath
the Arthurian Tintagel Castle. But it also reflects the turbulence of the
composer’s emotions for he was in a crisis of love having left his wife
and escaped to Cornwall with his mistress, the beautiful pianist Harriet
Cohen. Tintagel can be heard on a Chandos CD that also includes
Bax’s 4th Symphony which, like Tintagel, celebrates
the high point of a love affair that again finds a subconscious expression
through the imagery of Atlantic breakers. The 4th Symphony is
a portrait of the sea in many moods mostly as seen at Morar in Western Highlands
of Scotland.
Sea mythology is the inspiration of The Garden of Fand one of four
highly evocative tone poems on another Chandos album with the Ulster Orchestra
conducted by Bryden Thomson. Here again, in Fand, the Atlantic Ocean
is featured. A small boat is tossed by a huge wave onto the miraculous island
of Fand where the sailors indulge in wild revelry until the rising sea suddenly
engulfs the island. At the heart of the piece is one of Bax’s most ravishing
tunes as Fand sings her song of immortal love that enchains the hearts of
her listeners forever. (One wonders what brilliance Bax might have brought
to the scoring of A Perfect Storm!) Of the other tone poems I would
just mention November Woods written at the height of his passion for
Harriet Cohen. This music is a brilliant evocation of howling winds and lashing
rain beating through the trees. Bax was inspired as he sheltered in some
woods on his way to a romantic tryst with Harriet; and as with Tintagel,
the music is also an expression of the passion and torment of their situation.
Ian Lace
Next Month – Ottorino Respighi
