Which Bax symphony, if any?

[Dave2002]

Currently I'm listening to Bax's 6th. I can't say I've ever really "got on" with Bax, other than Tintagel, but maybe the 6th is as good or better than any of the others.

What do others think? My current listening is to a download.

[ahinton]

Currently I'm listening to Bax's 6th. I can't say I've ever really "got on" with Bax, other than Tintagel, but maybe the 6th is as good or better than any of the others.

What do others think? My current listening is to a download.

Tops are 3 & 6, I'd say, though there's no duds among the other five.

[Beef Oven!]

Tops are 3 & 6, I'd say, though there's no duds among the other five.

I'd say 3 closely followed by 2. And as minty says, there are no duds (except perhaps 7 )

The middle movement of 3 is some of the best slower music ever written. In 2, I find an edgy, nervousness-like vibe in the music, which appeals to me very much.

My first Bax symphonies were on CD. 25 years ago bought on Chandos, LPO, the late great, Bryden Thomson. Still love them. But over the last 5 or 6 years, I seem to reach for the Lyrita releases of these symphonies. I also have a smattering of Vernon Handley.

[Barbirollians]

Handley's complete set on Chandos is in a class of its own IMO . Though I should add the Barbirolli recording of the Third .

[Ferretfancy]

I have all the symphonies in different versions, but I have come to feel that in spite of many fine moments they don't impress as much as the tone poems. I always get the feeling that when he is composing longer works he comes up with great ideas but feels obliged to have extended developments that run out of steam.

[Serial_Apologist]

It's No 7 for me, in which, notwithstanding finding therein more overt Russian influence than in the others (especially Rachmaninov's) I have at last the feeling of Bax in his old age letting go of his demons - in it I find a lightness: so much of his music feels somehow weighted down like a Debussy who never freed himself from the Wagerian influence the Frenchman felt haunting his own "Pelleas"; the Mahlerian sense of benign resignation at the very end feels almost weightless as it breathes its way to a calm demise.

[ahinton]

I'd say 3 closely followed by 2. And as minty says, there are no duds (except perhaps 7 )

Minty? I've not seen anything from anyone of that name here, so maybe you're referring to another source about this repertoire. For myself, I have to admit that no. 2 is the one with which I'm the least familiar, so I really ought to rectify that soon.

[ahinton]

It's No 7 for me, in which, notwithstanding finding therein more overt Russian influence than in the others (especially Rachmaninov's) I have at last the feeling of Bax in his old age letting go of his demons - in it I find a lightness: so much of his music feels somehow weighted down like a Debussy who never freed himself from the Wagerian influence the Frenchman felt haunting his own "Pelleas"; the Mahlerian sense of benign resignation at the very end feels almost weightless as it breathes its way to a calm demise.

Good points, with which I can to some extent concur; the close of the symphony almost sounds to me as if the composer would have liked to end his final symphony with a similar kind of feeling as Mahler had closed his final completed one but, for rather obvious reasons, could never have stood a chance of so doing!

The trouble with the Bax symphonies (like so much else!) is that they're hardly ever heard in the concert hall where they should be.

[Serial_Apologist]

Minty? I've not seen anything from anyone of that name here, so maybe you're referring to another source about this repertoire. For myself, I have to admit that no. 2 is the one with which I'm the least familiar, so I really ought to rectify that soon.

Dark and demonic would be the two words coming prominently up in my mind in thinking of No 2 - a very powerful experience indeed for me.

[ahinton]

Dark and demonic would be the two words coming prominently up in my mind in thinking of No 2 - a very powerful experience indeed for me.

Right - that's it. Gotta go listen prontissimo!

[BBMmk2]

They are all tops, imo. If I had to 3 and 5.

[EdgeleyRob]

Right - that's it. Gotta go listen prontissimo!

The final bars of No 2 will leave you deep in thought I think (Bax even nicked RVW's term 'niente' here),my favourite together with no 6.
I wonder if one of our experts could provide the technical name for the final chord,note or interval of this symphony,always sounds ambiguous to me.

[ahinton]

The final bars of No 2 will leave you deep in thought I think (Bax even nicked RVW's term 'niente' here),my favourite together with no 6.

They have indeed, even though I still don't quite rate the work as a whole on the same level as 3 & 6.

[Suffolkcoastal]

The 6th is for me the finest of the set, then a close run thing between 2 & 3. On the matter of structure/form, Bax is actually a much better symphonist than he is given credit for. The symphonies are very coherently argued, with skillful and sometimes ingenious thematic transformations and developments. The orchestration is masterly, Bax was so sure of his 'ear' for orchestral colour his orchestral works were often published before they were performed. I prefer the superb Handley set, he grasps the symphonic structure more coherently than with other recordings.

[richardfinegold]

One of those Composers that just never clicked for me and I've tried through the years