Bax greatest symphony - lost 20th century masterpiece
rash67 | USA | 05/31/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I agree ... [but] I would add that Bax is among those composers who were more popular in their lifetimes, whose music is beautiful and profound and whose music is now nearly unknown and certainly underplayed. (Sibelius dedicated a Symphony to Bax!)This IS twentieth century music, but before it went off the deep end into unlistenable avant-garde dissonance. Bax has deep Impressionist roots, occationally sounds like Debussy, Ravel, Sibelius or early Stravinsky. Like Debussy, his music is shot full of mythical, mystical images. Sweet Dreams that occationally become nightmares. Images pulled out of the poetry of William Butler Yeats. Approachable music where dissonance is a strong spice not overused. Although English, Bax was a Keltic Pagan Mystic who strongly identified with the Irish. His Third is his ultimate achievement of the theme he tried many times in his other compositions to express. In his ecstatic dream, where one can imagine the protagonist, (Bax?), captured and swept away to another world, Avalon, Faery, or Summerland of magical beings and magical things. A otherworld of intense beauty, occationally frightening, which ends in a shimmering, crystalline vision and leaves the protagonist with an ache of longing for things glimpsed and lost. Like Rip Van Winkle, he combs the woods and wild places for the rest of his life looking for that secret place of enchantment and never again able to find it.If you are tired of hearing the same top 100 classical music pieces on the classical radio stations, listen here! Bax Symphony 3 is a great twentieth century classic which should be in everyone's collection.The Thompson performance is the best there is (he really understood Bax) and the recording is expressive and detailed! My highest recommendation, 5 stars = the best performance available of Bax's best piece."
Blatant Bax!
K. Farrington | Missegre, France | 05/06/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Bax's Third Symphony has remained over the years his most 'popular', with the caveat that one is being circumspect in the use of this adjective (it isn't actually played, but it is talked about from time to time and given this attribute which is passed on like I am doing now). During WWII Henry Wood championed it amongst other works as being representative of UK culture which was fighting at the time against the twisted Wagnerianism of Josef Goebbels. It now seems very strange to pit Tannhauser against Bax's Third! To my mind it was an astute choice for the grim but resolute Epilogue does show a determined and serious resolve that must have caught on with the Zeigeist in Britain of the early 1940's when she really stood alone. But what was Bax actually saying here? Like all Bax works, I believe the answer lies in the autobiographical sphere rather than the political arena into which it had been dragged ex post facto. Bax wrote this at the end of the 1920's and endured some physical hardship writing this stuff down in the depths of a Morar winter, in an unheated hotel, wearing his overcoat in his dingy room. He quotes some Nietzsche 'the barren stones,brought forth her young' quote from Zarathustra's introduction' on the short score but pulled it off later. The music is totally distinctive from his other works; the first and second belong togther stylistically, the fifth and sixth do too and so on. The opening movement begins with complex woodwind writing which reaches a climax and leads to an exhilarating modal string passage that always reminds me of arriving in the land of the Gael, the land of the little people and the faery, away from the more prosaic England. The climax with anvil is one of the most explosive known to music. The slow movement is inspired indeed with harp and celesta coloration overlaid with horn and trumpet calls which result in a melancholic nostalgia. The finale is amazing and possibly more musically complex than anything else Bax ever wrote. There are strands of Gershwin, Bartok (predictive of his Concerto for Orchestra!), Rimsky Korsakov (Russian Easter Festival Overture) and Bax himself which climaxes and leads to that fabulous Epilogue. The pace of Thomson is exact, improving on the Downes 1967 version and much better than the Jones on Naxos who takes the throb too fast to my mind. The Dance of Wild Irravel is brilliant and one only wishes it was longer! The Paean is a racket for full orchestra and organ which must be great in a concert hall but repetitive on CD. Still, I mustn't grumble, this is a wonderful CD and is matchless for an hours worth of England's most flamboyant user of the orchestra."
Ideal introduction to the symphonies of Arnold Bax
jsa | San Diego, CA United States | 03/14/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If you've never heard a Bax symphony, this performance of the Third is the perfect place to start. Bax had a great ability to translate natural scenery into musical impressions, of which the Third symphony is especially representative: brooding atmosphere, the scent of the forest, craggy cliffs, the fog and the sea - and underneath the surface is the mysteriousness of it all. The musical themes are very beautiful too, making this symphony satisfying on every level. Not surprisingly, Bax's Third had great admirers including Sibelius, Rachmaninoff, and Ralph Vaughan Williams who quoted from it in his piano concerto.
There are some critics who claim that this recording by Bryden Thomson and the London Philharmonic has been superceded by Vernon Handley's reading (available only as part of his complete Bax cycle) and David Lloyd-Jones on Naxos. I disagree. I think Thomas turns in a reading that really captures the mood of this symphony. Thomson has an ear for the mystical and extracts it without dwelling on it. The pace is just right - if played too fast, or if the musical surges are exaggerated, then the otherworldly aspect can easily be lost.
The fact that Chandos discontinued this disc is not a reflection on its quality, but instead seems to have been a pragmatic business decision considering that Handley's highly esteemed Bax set is also on Chandos. I bought a used copy in "like new" condition for a few dollars and recommend others do the same before copies become scarce."
Track Listings (5) - Disc #1