Bax, Sir Arnold

[BBMmk2]

I think there is a different "feel" to Bax's music than there is to other composers.

[edashtav]

Weeeell ...

I agree with Pulcie that the Mobius NAXOS disc of Bax chamber Music is an utter delight, and I've enjoyed his String Quartets, too. But with his orchestral Music, I rather think that - contrary to your own statement earlier - there is rather less to Bax than Tintagel. The "tone poems" I prefer, but the Symphonies lack the sweep and joy and passion that Tintagel abounds in. The Fifth Symphony is for me the best of a mediocre lot; and it begins so well - as if the composer had heard Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion, & Celesta and was making something of his own of it, but before too long he's gone into a tiresome faux-Celtic top o'the marnin' to ya jiggery-pokery that's full of sound but doesn't really interest or amuse me. (I much prefer Bolero!) And whilst there are some lovely, rich harmonies, full of genuine pathos, in the conclusion of the Symphony - it does go on a bit. Like a desiccated Beethoven coda, sucked dry of fire and energy, it just does the same thing again and again and again.

Bax's Music neither provides me with what I most want from Music, nor presents me with anything that I hadn't before realized I needed from it.

‘… there is rather less to Bax than Tintagel,’ you write, neatly turning BBM’s assertion on its head. For sweep, grandeur and intensity I feel that his orchestral In Memoriam 1916 , neither published or played in Bax’s lifetime, is a greater work.

And… I understand your worries about the 5th Symphony but I would ask your to listen again to the 1st Symphony which howls with rage at the recent War.