Search - Bax :: Cello Concerto / Northern Ballade 3

Bax in various guises

K. Farrington | Missegre, France | 03/28/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"During his middle to late years Bax, rather self-consciously, took a lot of the richness out of his music in terms of sonority and colour and attempted to replace this with additional form and tougher outlines. At the time he appeared to be dissatisfied with his earlier luxuriant richness and was wanting to appeal to the critics who were lionizing Sibelius and others who produced much terser works than he had done. Thus the formidable sound waves of 'Tintagel', 'The Garden of Fand' and 'Spring Fire' were replaced by the leaner lines of, inter alia, his Cello Concerto which entailed this extra structure and his 'Nordic' works to which he added a darker dramatic quality, as in the Northern Ballad No 3. The Cello Concerto, which hails from 1934, is written for a Schubert-sized orchestra, a definite ploy on Bax's part who had been scaling down the forces in his 5th Symphony which comes from the same year. The Cello Concerto was suggested by Harriet Cohen, Bax's ex-lover who still plugged his music, post amor, and who coerced a Spanish cellist Gaspar Cassado to commission a work from him. Bax's smaller forces give an almost chamber-like quality to much of the work with delicate effects allowed to shine through. The work lasts just over 33 minutes and has a lovely melodic Nocturne in which the soloist is allowed to sing into the night. Bax's musical invention never flags, although the temprement of the work is not passionate but reflective and discursive which probably accounts for its dedicatee's subsequent neglect of it. The music obviously was not enough of a showpiece for his technique and this is a pity because it contains much beautiful music in 'pastel-Bax'. The Northern Ballad Mo 3 comes from 1927 and is one of those peculiarly Baxian oddities where he put together an atmospheric piece of music which had a title problem for it was called 'Prelude for a Solemn Occasion' and it must have seemed unsuitable for what he originally set out to do. Anyway, this is a splendid chunk of Bax 'northern mood' which the composer himself had allowed to drop out of his list (and so approved) for 'Grove's Dictionary'. This is evidently 'the tail wagging the dog' as the piece has considerable atmosphere and warrants survival on its own merits as music per se.The Cortege is a folksy slice of Bax marching time, enjoying all the arching climaxes in varying orchestral hues that he made his own. Mediterranean is an impressionistic piece, lasting less than 4 minutes but nontheless brilliant is giving us a sketch of a long ago holiday in the sun. Few package tourists will recognise this impression!This is better than the Boult version of this work for its swell and exillaration. The Overture is an extrovert piece which Bax attempted his own version of 'Till Eulenspiegel' which show that he could do it as well as Richard Strauss if he wanted to. All in all an excellent disc with over an hour's excellent music and beautifully played by solist and orchestra."