Search - Arnold Bax, David Lloyd-Jones, Royal Scottish National Orchestra :: Bax: Symphonic Poems

The perfect introduction to Bax

E. Weed | Houston, TX | 01/09/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It wasn't until Chandos released Bryden Thomson's first disc of Bax tone poems in the Early Digital Era that I became enamored of his music. I'd found myself resistent to his symphonies, which tend to meander, and, even many years later, I'm still not crazy about them. But the tone poems are shorter, more straight-forward, and quite marvelous. For someone who hasn't heard Bax, I'd say take Debussy, Elgar, and Holst, stir them up together, and you have something of an idea what he sounds like.



Thomson did a great job with the tone poems, wallowing and luxuriating in their richness. The problem is, 20+ years later, the early digital sound is more annoying than it was at the time. The strings are missing weight and body, the brass are shrill, etc.



This Naxos disc has really nice sound--full mid-range and bass, good clarity, warmth. Lloyd-Jones moves the pieces along with more momentum than Thomson did. (Boult did the same, in a Lyrita disc that isn't easy to find now.) In Lloyd-Jones' account of the Bax symphonies for Naxos, that's a plus, because it reins in their meandering quality to some extent. In the tone poems, I rather like a little "wallowing." But Lloyd-Jones' approach is perfectly reasonable, and, for this listener, represents at least an interesting change. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra is a little underpowered in the strings, but consists of first-rate musicians, and plays quite well.



If you haven't heard Bax, this is a great place to start, at the right price, too. If you know Bax's music, this is a happy alternative version. (Most, if not all of these pieces were included as fillers with the Lloyd-Jones symphonies, but it's worth it, in my view, to have them together in this format.)"

A superb introduction to Bax

Biblibio | 02/16/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'd never heard of Bax when I picked this up from the library. I was just getting into tone poems and symphonic poems at the time, so I decided to check it out. I was surprised by what I heard. The music was very beautiful, very interesting, and very nice. I found myself listening to the CD again and again without getting bored. The pieces were quite lovely, played wonderfully, and I found myself wondering more about this composer Bax.



There are five symphonic poems on this CD. Each one is different, with a different sort of theme or concept. While it seems that Tintagel is the best known, my personal favorite was November Woods, which is low, beautiful, and mysterious. The sound is good enough for me (as someone who knows little about sound quality and only knows that it sounds GOOD), the playing is beautiful enough for me, and the deal is great. This was a great disc to get introduced to a very interesting composer through a few orchestral pieces that weren't too long and difficult to concentrate on. Every song on here is nice to listen to, played well, and is very good.



I recommend this for anyone who wants to get into Bax but doesn't know where to start. This is a great introduction."