Restrained Bax
K. Farrington | Missegre, France | 04/11/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Restraint, a feature of the CD, is not something that one usually associates with Bax. Bax was the 'unashamed romantic', the depictor non plus ultra of passion and rampant emotion. The early three symphonies had been rich orchestral tapestries, painted in the most delicious orchestral hues and harmonies that take us to the outer reaches of tonality without leaving it or melody behind. The Fourth Symphony kept the sumptuous orchestral color as before (and even added some!) but cut back on the emotion and tension that underpinned the first three. The Fifth cuts back on the orchestral forces employed but ups the formal content. The first movement is a treatise on a motto theme with a syncopated rhythm which appears in varying guises throughout the movement until at the end it jumps from the minor into the major and attains a nightmarish quality but is now triumphalist in mood. The scoring throughout is now more disciplined without those wind arabesques or celesta runs which characterised his earlier work. Nevertheless, Bax, as ever, uses his mood swings into Lento passages of grave meditative beauty as when the oboe sings over the three muted trumpets, harp and strings playing sul ponticello (on the bridge) as the violas murmur away in the background, spooky! The opening of the slow movement is one of the most breathtaking of Bax's openings with fanfaring trupets over the shimmering strings and harp glissandi. Bax referred to one of his favorite beauty spots at Slieve League where you burst upon the Atlantic half way up the horizon four thousand feet up. This subsides and a thoughtful lento with sea music throughout. The finale is a contest between a liturgical theme and a diabolic Bax creation that ends up in a grim triumph. This triumph in the Epilogue is unique in terms of Bax mood for the closure of a symphony. The second work on this Cd is an orchestral arrangement of three piano pieces composed by Bax in the period after WWI. The most substantial piece in mood, the Nocturne, is the smallest in orchestral size and is a delightful piece of Bax reverie on the Ukrainian night. I am not aware this work is offered on another CD set and it is well worth having for its own sake. As ever, everything is beautifully played and recorded throughout. Wonderful stuff!"
Track Listings (6) - Disc #1