Bax Tone Poems Vol 2
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax
Label: Chandos
Magazine Review Date: 9/1985
Media Format: Vinyl
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: ABRD1133
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Into the twilight |
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer Bryden Thomson, Conductor Ulster Orchestra |
| In the Faery Hills |
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer Bryden Thomson, Conductor Ulster Orchestra |
| Roscatha |
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer Bryden Thomson, Conductor Ulster Orchestra |
| (The) Tale the pine trees knew |
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer Bryden Thomson, Conductor Ulster Orchestra |
Composer or Director: Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax
Label: Chandos
Magazine Review Date: 9/1985
Media Format: Cassette
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: ABTD1133
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Into the twilight |
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer Bryden Thomson, Conductor Ulster Orchestra |
| In the Faery Hills |
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer Bryden Thomson, Conductor Ulster Orchestra |
| Roscatha |
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer Bryden Thomson, Conductor Ulster Orchestra |
| (The) Tale the pine trees knew |
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer Bryden Thomson, Conductor Ulster Orchestra |
Composer or Director: Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax
Label: Chandos
Magazine Review Date: 9/1985
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 57
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CHAN8367
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Into the twilight |
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer Bryden Thomson, Conductor Ulster Orchestra |
| In the Faery Hills |
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer Bryden Thomson, Conductor Ulster Orchestra |
| Roscatha |
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer Bryden Thomson, Conductor Ulster Orchestra |
| (The) Tale the pine trees knew |
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer Bryden Thomson, Conductor Ulster Orchestra |
Author: Michael Oliver
Not many composers can be more crucially made or marred by the performer than Bax. I have seen The Tale the Pine-trees Knew described as his weakest tone-poem, the weakness ascribed to an excessive dependence on Sibelius. It would sound that way, I am sure, if the conductor and orchestra treated it so, but here it sounds like one of Bax's strongest later scores. It is partly a matter of realizing precisely his constantly shifting but exactly imagined colours; still more important is the extraordinary swiftness with which the music's moods change—as Vernon Handley has pointed out, these changes can occur in mid-phrase or by irregular numbers of bars, and Thomson is scrupulously responsive to them. It is a lengthy piece (over 17 minutes) but firmly unified by one or two unobtrusively pervasive ideas and still more by a sustained toughness of texture and manner. The overall impression is of bracing energy and of a cold, clean wind; despite a beautiful moment of relaxation at its centre (like a fleeting memory of The Garden of Fand) it is one of the most striking of Bax's northern landscape evocations.
Bax planned the other three tone-poems on this disc as a trilogy (although two of them are based on sketches for an abandoned opera on the subject of Deirdre of the sorrows) and they make a satisfyingly contrasted group. The finest of them is ''In the Faery Hills'', a scherzo and trio of impressive urgency. There is a gorgeous and archetypally Baxian tune (in his 'legendary' or 'bardic' manner) in the trio section, and elsewhere many pages of minutely embroidered, iridescent colour. ''Into the Twilight'' makes a fine prelude to it: another of Bax's images of the fairy world, which for him can be wild and formidable as well as alluring. Its themes are strong enough and closely enough related (the third in particular is a magical idea—long-breathed and ravishingly scored) to be cast in a confidently handled 'ballad' form: sectional, that is, and cumulative rather than developmental. ''Rosc-Catha'', finally (the title means ''battle hymn'') will be quite a shock to anyone who still thinks of Bax as a romantic loiterer: it is an extended symphonic march-fantasy. Such a thing from such a date ought to sound sub-Elgarian, but the 'Celtic' rhythmic tags (they are as much Scottish as Irish), the barbaric scoring and the characteristic touches of transported wildness save it from any such overtones: even the slower middle section is about as unEdwardian as one can get. To hear Eire complete and in sequence is to understand why Bax regretted his youth so bitterly: it is music of enormous confidence, gorgeous colour and moments of piercing vision.
All the superlatives lavished on earlier releases in the Ulster Orchestra's Bax series must be dusted off, polished and used again: the performances are of outstanding imaginativeness and sympathy, the solo playing of great refinement, the atmosphere of each piece marvellously caught. The CD enables one to admire in still greater detail what a really exceptionally fine group the Ulster Orchestra has become, but the recording is quite superb in both media: the climaxes refulgent yet clear, the half-lights and shadows beautifully subtle. A most distinguished achievement.'
Bax planned the other three tone-poems on this disc as a trilogy (although two of them are based on sketches for an abandoned opera on the subject of Deirdre of the sorrows) and they make a satisfyingly contrasted group. The finest of them is ''In the Faery Hills'', a scherzo and trio of impressive urgency. There is a gorgeous and archetypally Baxian tune (in his 'legendary' or 'bardic' manner) in the trio section, and elsewhere many pages of minutely embroidered, iridescent colour. ''Into the Twilight'' makes a fine prelude to it: another of Bax's images of the fairy world, which for him can be wild and formidable as well as alluring. Its themes are strong enough and closely enough related (the third in particular is a magical idea—long-breathed and ravishingly scored) to be cast in a confidently handled 'ballad' form: sectional, that is, and cumulative rather than developmental. ''Rosc-Catha'', finally (the title means ''battle hymn'') will be quite a shock to anyone who still thinks of Bax as a romantic loiterer: it is an extended symphonic march-fantasy. Such a thing from such a date ought to sound sub-Elgarian, but the 'Celtic' rhythmic tags (they are as much Scottish as Irish), the barbaric scoring and the characteristic touches of transported wildness save it from any such overtones: even the slower middle section is about as unEdwardian as one can get. To hear Eire complete and in sequence is to understand why Bax regretted his youth so bitterly: it is music of enormous confidence, gorgeous colour and moments of piercing vision.
All the superlatives lavished on earlier releases in the Ulster Orchestra's Bax series must be dusted off, polished and used again: the performances are of outstanding imaginativeness and sympathy, the solo playing of great refinement, the atmosphere of each piece marvellously caught. The CD enables one to admire in still greater detail what a really exceptionally fine group the Ulster Orchestra has become, but the recording is quite superb in both media: the climaxes refulgent yet clear, the half-lights and shadows beautifully subtle. A most distinguished achievement.'
Bax Tone Poems Vol 2
Bax Tone Poems Vol 2
Bax Tone Poems Vol 2
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