Sir Arnold Bax

[Roasted Swan]

Thanks, RS.  The link I gave below is actually for Boult's Holst disc (also essential), so the news that they are going to release the Bax disc saves me from some embarassment.  I don't see it at Presto yet, though.

the link to the US website means UK customers can't download from there and will have to wait until Presto (or another site) offer them.  Quite pricey for the highest res - $24 odd.  Does that mean I won't be tempted?...... of course not!

[vandermolen]

I assume there is no hard copy CD release? Digital downloads don't appeal to my collecting mania.

[aukhawk]

... Moreover, it could be that British music is just not for me at all. ...

English** music was famously* once described as 'small beer'.

* famously - but I can't remember who by.  Some pundit.

** a misnomer but IMHO the word describes a genre, rather than the strictly-defined nationality of those who composed within that genre.

[Mirror Image]

I agree with you about VW John. However, I discovered an LP of Bax's Third Symphony (LSO/Downes) in the university library in my student daysand never looked back after that. I do not enjoy all of Bax's output (unlike VW) but have a deep attachment to the symphonies, the Piano Quintet and many of the tone poems Oddly enough Britten is a composer I'm trying to explore more. I'm not an opera fan and up to now only enjoyed the War Requiem, Cantata Misericordium and the Sinfonia da Requiem but more recently I've enjoyed discovering the Violin and Piano Concerto (which I'm currently listening to).

I think there has to be an allure to the music on first-listen for someone to want to continue listening. With Bax, I just felt that my time had been wasted. There was nothing in the music that I found interesting nor could I find any access points. But all of this will probably sound contradictory when I tell you I have a rather large collection of his music.

I do recall enjoying this recording with Brabbins:



I really liked the work Cathaleen-ní-Hoolihan and this is because there's a certain RVW sound to it that I picked up on almost immediately.

[vandermolen]

Britain was once known as 'The Land without music'

[Roasted Swan]

I assume there is no hard copy CD release? Digital downloads don't appeal to my collecting mania.

If its hi-res "studio master" then it won't fit on a CD - too much data.  I agree with you - I'm (usually) hard copies all the way but some of the Studio masters do sound stunning (although thems what know more than I will say the resolution gained is outside of the capacity of most equipment or the human ear so I'm probably just being suckered into buying them!)

[Daverz]

If its hi-res "studio master" then it won't fit on a CD - too much data.  I agree with you - I'm (usually) hard copies all the way but some of the Studio masters do sound stunning (although thems what know more than I will say the resolution gained is outside of the capacity of most equipment or the human ear so I'm probably just being suckered into buying them!)

Presto sells standard def files (16-bit, 44.1 kHz) of the newer remasters, e.g.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8604508--arnold-beckus-the-dandipratt-dances-sinfonietta-no-1

I've never been able to convince myself that I hear a difference between a hi-res file and a downsampled copy.

Or you can always downsample the hi-res files before burning them.  I suspect some burning software already does this for the user.    I don't think burning to CDR is going to satisfy the need for physical acquisition, though.

[vandermolen]

Presto sells standard def files (16-bit, 44.1 kHz) of the newer remasters, e.g.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8604508--arnold-beckus-the-dandipratt-dances-sinfonietta-no-1

I've never been able to convince myself that I hear a difference between a hi-res file and a downsampled copy.

Or you can always downsample the hi-res files before burning them.  I suspect some burning software already does this for the user.    I don't think burning to CDR is going to satisfy the need for physical acquisition, though.

No, certainly not! I need an 'official' hard-copy CD release, extensive booklet notes, attractive cover design etcetc.

[Biffo]

Britain was once known as 'The Land without music'

And England was once described as 'a nest of singing nightingales ' - it all depends on what period of history you are talking about and who is making the patronising comment.

[vers la flamme]

When I think of English music, I think of a rich choral music tradition dating back centuries, to Tallis, Byrd etc through to the present; and then I think of the kind of lush, impressionistic, modal, reserved, post-Romantic, string-heavy, and often pastoral music that I associate with Vaughan Williams, Delius, etc.; and then a kind of darker, wittier music that I associate with Britten. (Of course I am really all but clueless on all this.) Far from a "land without music". This is all totally unique to the British people and their music. Amazing stuff. Still, in the end much of it does not do anything for me, or not yet.

[Irons]

And England was once described as 'a nest of singing nightingales ' - it all depends on what period of history you are talking about and who is making the patronising comment.

To be fair there is not a lot to write home about between Purcell and Elgar.

[aukhawk]

We claim Handel

[Biffo]

To be fair there is not a lot to write home about between Purcell and Elgar.

Very true but despite a lack of outstanding native composers in that period there was still a flourishing musical culture - certainly not 'a land without music'

[vandermolen]

To be fair there is not a lot to write home about between Purcell and Elgar.

Yes, that's what I was just thinking too. It's rather the same IMO in the history of sculpture. There's not much between Bernini and Rodin.

[Oates]

To be fair there is not a lot to write home about between Purcell and Elgar.

During this period German music was dominant in Britain. It has been said, also during this period, that music here needed Royal patronage. And for a big part of the past couple of hundred years our Royal family was, er, German...

[André]

The House of Hanover, 1714-1901.

The first three of the lineage were born in Germany, the last three (George IV, William IV and Victoria) were born in England. Since all of them married a german princess or prince, the royal family's blood remained 100% german until the death of Edward VII in 1910. The latter's grandson George VI was the first british monarch to marry an Englishwoman (born in England).

And of course Handel was german  0:)

[vandermolen]

The House of Hanover, 1714-1901.

The first three of the lineage were born in Germany, the last three (George IV, William IV and Victoria) were born in England. Since all of them married a german princess or prince, the royal family's blood remained 100% german until the death of Edward VII in 1910. The latter's grandson George VI was the first british monarch to marry an Englishwoman (born in England).

And of course Handel was german  0:)

King George 1st couldn't speak English and spent very little time over here. Always makes me laugh.

[aukhawk]

And of course Handel was german  0:)

I note with approval your use of the lower-case g.

The England cricket team has been captained, in my lifetime, by a Welshman, a Scot, an Irishman and a South African, plus more than one born in India.
Handel lived in England and wrote English music, for the English, in English, and was apparently informed by Purcell in a way that the other members of the Class of '85 were not.  He died a British citizen and was buried in Westminster.  We claim him!! 

[vers la flamme]

I ended up picking this up from the local record store:



David Lloyd-Jones conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in Bax's 1st symphony, as well as In the Faery Hills and the Garden of Fand. I haven't heard the symphony yet in full but I really enjoyed the tone poems, especially the latter. So colorful, great orchestration, great melodies. I'll be exploring this composer further as time goes on. The shop has almost the complete cycle except for the 7th, each with a tone poem or two. I may or may not be picking up more of them at some point, depending on how I like this one.

[Roasted Swan]

Wandering around on the web I found this article and enjoyed reading it a lot

https://corymbus.co.uk/the-music-that-time-forgot/

Symphony No.3 was recently performed in London by the amateur (but good) Salomon Orchestra at St. John's Smith Square.  The commitment of all - especially conductor Phillip Ellis - was never in doubt but it did reinforce how elusive Bax's idiom is.......