MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW
RECORDING OF THE MONTH


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


Buy through MusicWeb from £11.00 postage paid World-wide. Try it on Sale or Return
You may prefer to pay by Sterling cheque or Euro notes to avoid PayPal. Contact for details

Musicweb Purchase button

 

Sir Arnold BAX (1883-1953)
Symphony No. 2 (1924-6) [37:39]
Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor (1931-2)* [40:46]
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Myer Fredman (2); Raymond Leppard* (5)
rec. Walthamstow Town Hall, London, Oct 1970 (2), Feb 1971 (5). ADD
originally issued on LP as SRCS 54 (2); SRCS 58 (5)
LYRITA SRCD.233 [78.28]

Sound Samples
Symphony 5
Start 2nd movement
Extract 3rd Movement



The second phase of Lyrita’s analogue heyday came in the early 1970s. So far as Bax symphonies were concerned they were content to fill in around the efforts of two other companies. The Third Symphony had been recorded by RCA with the LSO conducted by Edward Downes. It has never had an issue on CD - a rather lacklustre affair, I thought at the time. The Fourth was produced even earlier by the Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra and Vernon Handley, forces later used by Lyrita but at that time favoured by the Revolution label. The recording of No. 4 was rather shrill but the performance was spirited. Both these LPs had an evanescent presence on the shelves. They were flawed in one way or another and soon slipped from view. Even so, Lyrita moved with good judgement to make world premiere recordings of the remaining Bax symphonies. No. 6 came in the first Lyrita phase in the mid-1960s. The second phase saw the issue of three then still desperately unfashionable symphonies in quickish succession. The first two (Nos. 1 and 2) were issued in consecutive months sporting sponsorship from Ken Russell Productions Ltd. The Fifth had to wait until the following year with the Seventh coming out in the third issue phase in 1975. These discs made the Bax renaissance and might even have been its authors for most people of the generation that had grown up since Bax’s death. Their confidence in accomplishment swept all doubts aside among the growing ranks of open-minded admirers and enquirers although there certainly remained people who had no time for these works.

The Lyrita sessions captured nothing faltering or academic. There is a remarkable tenderness in the first movement of the Fifth Symphony with the gentle touching in of celesta chimes. An exultant rowdiness to Bax’s climaxes never becomes tawdry and there is a headiness to the great pliant melody that strides through the second movement of the gaudy and awesome Second Symphony. The spangled dazzling colours of the Fifth are memorable for their astonishingly candid rhythmic emphasis and forthright and charismatic brass writing. Time after time Bax irresistibly whirls the listener into the action. He is a master of colour though his orchestration can seem dense even if that very density has a wild glamour of its own. It is that subtlety of colours and direct speaking that shouts Bax as in their different accents and idiosyncrasies the symphonies of Sibelius, Martinů and Nielsen shout their own authorship. Try the horizon-tilting brass fanfares and underpinning glimmer of harp and violins at the very start of the second movement of No. 5 for another example of mastery. Yet more originality can be heard in the second movement where tuba and flailing clarinet figures counterpoint each other. There is a crackling feral voltage in this passage before the music sweeps on to even stranger realms. The kinetic head-banging power of the start of the third movement is also remarkable. The tension hardly ever lets up and the narrative arc remains intact all the way through Leppard’s reading. This continues through to those roaringly clamant final bars with the shrapnel-staccato of the rimshot tattoo. Sadly when Leppard took the work to the Proms many years later on 24 July 1984 with the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra it drew only a small audience, was memorable for a drastically cracked trumpet note and had a less than cogent trajectory.

Comparisons: There is no identical coupling so if you need just these two symphonies this is a compelling choice. The analogue sound is very healthy despite being pushed to the limits in the overwhelming climaxes. Looked at individually, in a blessedly crowded market, these two remain at the top of the recommendation list or very close. I say that in the face of the Handley-Chandos box, the Thomson-Chandos cycle (which has a pretty good No. 5, by the way) and the Lloyd-Jones-Naxos sequence. But for the frail sound of the Dutton CD of Goossens’ 1950s broadcast of the Second Symphony I would have been bracketing the Dutton and the Fredman together. Handley would have been on their heels. Outright Baxians must hear the Goossens but for most practical purposes you will have heard the Second Symphony at its finest with Fredman. Handley is a close second - a degree or so cooler but not far behind.

This generously timed disc is well supported by liner notes from Lewis Foreman and Robert Layton.

Lyrita, Fredman and Leppard recreated a Baxian tradition in the 1970s but these two readings have a grip that transcends mere documentary interest.

Rob Barnett

More Bax also available on Lyrita:-
SRCD.231 Symphonic Poems - LPO/Sir Adrian Boult
SRCD.232 Symphonies Nos. 1 and 7 LPO/Myer Fredman; Raymond Leppard
SRCD.296 Symphony No.6 overtures RPO/Vernon Handley

 

 

 

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.