Search - Arnold Bax, Gould Piano Trio, Benjamin Frith :: Bax: Clarinet Sonatas; Piano Trio; Trio in One Movement

Ingratiating

David Saemann | 06/02/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was intrigued about hearing this disc after listening to the Stanford album by Plane and the Gould Piano Trio. Both were supported by grants from the Royal Welsh Academy of Music and Drama, where Plane teaches. The Bax album is as good as the Stanford. The opening Piano Trio was Bax's last chamber work, from 1946. Although he was reluctant to write a Piano Trio, claiming that the only composer who dealt with the medium successfully was Dvorak, he produced a wonderfully mellifluous work, filled with beautiful writing for this ensemble of instruments. His 1934 Clarinet Sonata is a moodier piece, presented by Robert Plane with no lack of atmosphere. The Folk-Tale for cello and piano may be the high point of the album. It has a tremendous sense of atmosphere, and is gorgeously played by Alice Neary. The remaining early works on the album were suppressed by Bax. They include two clarinet and piano pieces from 1901, which display a mastery of the idiom, but lack the manner and substance of the more mature Bax. They still are highly enjoyable, as is the 1906 Trio for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano, a sometimes exuberant work that combines these instruments highly effectively. The sound engineering, from Potton Hall, Suffolk, is beautiful. This disc is yet another testimony to the often unheralded achievement of Arnold Bax."