Arnold Bax - Tone Poems Vol. 2 (Vernon Handley)

Information

Composer: Arnold Bax

1. 1st Northern Ballad
2. 2nd Northern Ballad
3. Prelude for a Solemn Occasion (3rd Northern Ballad)
4. Nympholept ("Enter these enchanted woods, You who dare")
5. Red Autumn (orch. Graham Parlett)
6. The Happy Forest
7. Into the Twilight (after William Butler Yeats's poem)

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

Vernon Handley, conductor

Date: 2008

Label: Chandos

https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%2010446

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Review

Vernon Handley's revelatory Bax odyssey for Chandos comes up trumps once again with this generous feast spanning a quarter of a century from the enchanted Donegal glens of the youthful Into the Twilight (1908) to the rugged, wintry seascape of the Second Northern Ballad, completed in 1934. The latter is flanked by its roistering and plaintive predecessor and the darkly opulent Prelude for a Solemn Occasion (also known as Northern Ballad No 3). Whether Bax ever envisaged them as a self-contained entity is pure conjecture but, when presented with such swaggering commitment, they do comprise a deeply stirring and evocative sequence. Certainly the imposing performance of the Prelude puts Bryden Thomson's in the shade, while Handley's tellingly taut yet flexible view of No 2 shaves over two minutes off his earlier RPO recording.

Elsewhere, Into the Twilight receives ideally radiant, heartfelt treatment - and you'll wait a lifetime to hear the ecstatic Nympholept better done. The Happy Forest raises the bar in its lightness of touch, iridescent glow and twinkling fun. The gale-tossed Red Autumn (more familiar in its two-piano garb) is clad in a remarkably idiomatic new orchestration by Graham Parlett.

So, gloriously assured music-making from first measure to last, and it's a relief to be able to report that Chandos's spectacularly ample and informative sound has all the natural bloom and crucial mid-range warmth so disconcertingly absent from the previous volume in this landmark series (8/06). An unmissable treat.

The second disc brings a majestic (and long overdue) return to currency for two cornerstones of the Lyrita catalogue. The LPO respond with all the edge-of-seat excitement of new discovery, particularly so in the turbulent Second Symphony, where an impassioned and inspired Myer Fredman secures playing of terrific fire, dedication and spontaneity. If Raymond Leppard's account of the Fifth operates at a slightly lower voltage, his cannily paced, sensitive and meticulously prepared reading none the less remains a most distinguished contribution to the Bax discography.

Both these vintage displays were marvellously engineered by Decca personnel working within the benign acoustic of Walthamstow Town Hall. The eloquent original sleeve-notes by Lewis Foreman and Robert Layton have sensibly been retained, and Simon Gibson's remasterings are first class (No 2 sounding a tad more clinical than it did on vinyl). If I encounter a more rewarding reissue all year, I shall be very surprised.

-- Andrew Achenbach, Gramophone

More reviews:
ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 8 / SOUND QUALITY: 9

https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2008/may08/bax_handley_chan10446.htm

https://www.allmusic.com/album/bax-tone-poems-vol-2-mw0001945611

https://www.amazon.com/Bax-Tone-Poems-2/dp/B0015SRLWQ

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Arnold Bax (8 November 1883 – 3 October 1953) was an English composer, poet, and author. His prolific output includes songs, choral music, chamber pieces, and solo piano works, but he is best known for his orchestral music. In addition to a series of symphonic poems, he wrote seven symphonies and was for a time widely regarded as the leading British symphonist. In his last years he found his music regarded as old-fashioned, and after his death it was generally neglected. From the 1960s onwards his music was gradually rediscovered, although little of it is regularly heard in the concert hall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Bax

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Vernon Handley (11 November 1930 – 10 September 2008) was a British conductor. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and was a pupil of Adrian Boult. Handley was Principal Conductor of the Ulster Orchestra from 1985 to 1989, and Conductor Laureate from 2003. From 1986 to 1988, he was chief conductor of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra. He was appointed Principal Conductor of the English Symphony Orchestra in January 2007. Handley is much revered for his enthusiastic and untiring championship of British music. The majority of his recordings were of British music, including as many as a hundred premières.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernon_Handley

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