Search - Bax, Kersey, Barbirolli :: Violin Concerto / Symphony No. 3

Wartime Bax Performances in Great Sound

Thomas F. Bertonneau | Oswego, NY United States | 11/03/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The music of Sir Arnold Bax (1883-1953) might well be an acquired taste; precisely because Bax was such a distinct and independent personality, the music is rich and peculiar -- it is often complex, and for many years the seven symphonies were dismissed by critics as overscored and "rhapsodic" (as they usually said). They are neither. Bax is a British, rather than an English composer, assimilating Irish and Scots influences, and (oddly) Russian ones, but never, or only rarely, echoing the style of the Pastoral School. He always suffered from a paucity of performance during his lifetime and his work all but disappeared from concert programs after his death. It wasn't until the 1970s that a reappraisal occurred. Currently, there is one complete set of the symphonies, on Chandos; one in progress, on Naxos; and a few single-issues, on Classico and Lyrita. What has been missing from the Bax discography, archival recordings, now begins to appear, thanks to Dutton's offering of a 1944 reading of the Violin Concerto (1937) and a 1943 reading of the Third Symphony (1928). The first thing to say about this CD is that the acoustic reconstruction, starting from superb sources, is breath-taking. The Concerto was recorded by the BBC for repeat-broadcast during the war and benefitted from extraordinary original engineering; the Symphony was a commercial release for HMV, also "state of the art" for its time. The remastering is in the Dutton "style" of eliminating surface noise as much as possible, but there can't have been much. The sense of space and the differentiation of voices in both the Concerto and the Symphony are so good that the initial impression is of the best possible mid-1950s hi-fi mono, with a hint of stereo bloom. The soloist in the Concerto, Eda Kersey, gives a robust performance, helped along by Adrian Boult and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. This performance is at least as good, perhaps a bit more plastic in its interpretation, as Lydia Mordkovitch's, with Bryden Thomson, on Chandos. Kersey and Boult collaborate with notable concentration to put the Concerto's First Movement in order. This consists of an "overture," a "ballade," and a "scherzo," which, in their sequence, threaten an episodic experience. Mordkovitch and Thomson, by comparison, switch gears more obviously at the articulations; Kersey and Boult negotiate the transitions with unifying smoothness. The Third figured in Bax's lifetime and for a good while thereafter as his best-known symphony. Its attractions are a slow-movement Nocturne of hushed beauty like nothing else and an Epilogue so poignant in its elegiac mood that it makes gooseflesh. This no doubt explains why John Barbirolli and HMV selected it for their 1943-44 studio sessions, with Bax present. How does this Third stack up against those of Thomson and Lloyd-Jones, who provide the competition? It's the best of the three, and for a particular reason: Barbirolli has an instinct for the long First Movement, that solves the problem of its tempo-plan. An Allegro Moderato with a slow introduction and several slow interpolations, the movement can work against itself. Barbirolli takes the introductory section faster than either Thomson or Lloyd-Jones and delivers a faster movement overall. The fugal episodes make much more sense at Barbirolli's pace than when played more slowly or languorously. The packaging is first-rate, with wartime posters of London on the front and back of the booklet, helpful and abundant annotation by Bax-biographer Lewis Foreman, and photographic documentation. This will become a collector's item. Most strongly recommended."

A living period piece

Mr. Ian A. Macfarlane | Fife, Scotland | 12/26/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'd just like to echo what Mr. Bertonneau has said in his learned and interesting review - the CD is absorbing and involving in every way - and to add that it is nice to have this one and only (I think) example of Ida Kersey's art on disc. She was a really fine player who died only a few months after this recording was made. It is a cliche to say that with Boult and Barbirolli music by English composers was always in 'safe hands', but it's quite true. However, these performances are not 'safe' in any cautious or dull sense ; they ring with life and vigour. The sound is quite excellent and (a very small point) the atmosphere of the whole thing is just slightly enhanced by the wartime picture on the liner note cover, with its city blackout and AA searchlight."

One of the essential Bax recordings

L. Johan Modée | Earth | 03/18/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Recordings of the music of Arnold Bax are quite rare, even today after three quite successful competing cycles on two labels: Naxos (Lloyd-Jones' cycle) and Chandos (Thomson and Handley).



Barbirolli's performance of the third symphony is from the time when Bax was widely appreciated and well known, at least in the UK (1943). Boult and Kersey's performance of the violin concerto is from the same wartime days (1944).



Both are classic performances and superb mono recordings, in an excellent remastering from Dutton. What we have are two cases of distinguishing music making that later conductors must consider and learn from. In this sense, this CD is of course a collector's item but in my view it is also a very fine introduction to Bax, even if the sound is in mono.



The symphony and the concerto are, as usual with Bax, dark and tragic works, brilliantly orchestrated and structurally interesting. At the same time, this is fairly "easy" music, at least on the surface. Jean Sibelius and Ralph Vaughan Williams, in his more accessible works, provide the musical context for reference.



I would add this CD to my "ideal Bax cycle", which also would include the following items:



Symphony 1 & 7 (Lyrita), with Myer Fredman, Raymond Leppard, and London Philharmonic Orchestra: Bax: Symphony No. 1; Symphony No. 7.



Symphony 2 and 5 (Lyrita), with Myer Fredman, Raymond Leppard, and London Philharmonic Orchestra: Bax: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 5.



Symphony 6 (Lyrita), with Norman Del Mar and New Philharmonia Orchestra: Bax: Symphony No. 6; Irish Landscape; Etc..



Tone poems (Lyrita), with Adrian Boult and London Philharmonic Orchestra: Boult conducts Bax.



Unfortunately there is no classic performance of Bax fourth symphony, his least appreciated, but I think David Lloyd-Jones (Naxos) is the best performance yet on record: Bax: Symphony No. 4; Nympholept; Overture to a Picaresque Comedy.

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