Bax; Bridge; Ireland Piano Sonatas
Malcolm Binns still cuts the mustard in this absorbing survey
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Frank Bridge, Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, John (Nicholson) Ireland
Label: British Music Society
Magazine Review Date: 3/2008
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 147
Mastering:
Stereo
Catalogue Number: BMS434/5

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Sonata for Piano No. 1 |
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer Malcolm Binns, Piano |
Sonata for Piano No. 2 |
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer Malcolm Binns, Piano |
Sonata in E/E minor |
John (Nicholson) Ireland, Composer
John (Nicholson) Ireland, Composer Malcolm Binns, Piano |
Sonata |
Frank Bridge, Composer
Frank Bridge, Composer Malcolm Binns, Piano |
Sonata for Piano No. 3 |
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer Malcolm Binns, Piano |
Sonata for Piano No. 4 |
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer Malcolm Binns, Piano |
Author: Andrew Achenbach
Although the richly experienced Binns can’t always match the jaw-dropping technical accomplishment of either Ashley Wass (Naxos, 10/04; 6/05) or Michael Endres (Oehms, 10/06) – some will doubtless crave more in the way of sheer heft and giddy spectacle in, say, the First Sonata’s pealing culmination – his poetic instincts and intellectual acumen do not desert him. And anyway, as Eric Parkin has demonstrated in his mid-1980s survey for Chandos, a softer-spoken, less volatile approach brings its own special rewards. Make no mistake, Binns is a deeply sympathetic, tasteful and humane guide and his overall achievement a very considerable one.
Turning to the magnificent Bridge and Ireland sonatas, Binns may not topple my allegiance to Mark Bebbington and Parkin – acutely perceptive exponents, both, on Somm (10/06) and Lyrita respectively – but his accounts remain well worth investigating, for he has plenty to say and does so with discernment, spirit and wisdom. (A final textual point of note: he plays Ireland’s less frequently encountered 1951 revision.)
The warmly realistic engineering does justice to Binns’s pearly yet rounded tone and adds further lustre to a generous and stimulating set that no dedicated Anglophile should overlook.
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