Information
Composer: Arnold Bax
- Violin Sonata No. 1 in E major
- Violin Sonata No. 3
Laurence Jackson, violin
Ashley Wass, piano
Date: 2006
Label: Naxos
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A glance at Graham Parlett’s invaluable catalogue of Bax’s music (OUP: 1999) reveals that the first of the composer’s three numbered violin sonatas (a passionate outpouring from 1910 fanned by the embers of a love affair with a Ukrainian girl by the name of Natalie Skarginska) exists in no fewer than four versions. Bax’s final revision dates from 1945 but this new Naxos collection includes a debut on disc for the original second and third movements that Bax jettisoned in 1915 when he overhauled the sonata for the first time.
In a letter to the violinist May Harrison, the composer referred to the “old slow movement‚ as being rather too juvenile for public performance”, but as a dyed-in-the-wool fan I must say I found it deeply touching to experience Bax’s affecting and exuberant first thoughts, especially when played with such authority and rapt intuition as here.
As for the sonata proper, Laurence Jackson and Ashley Wass mastermind the most exquisitely poised and insightful interpretation I’ve yet encountered; never have I been made so aware of the links with Szymanowski’s Myths and First Concerto (a reminder that the violin part of all three works was edited by the great Polish virtuoso Pawe Kochanski).
Similarly, the two-movement Third Sonata of 1927 receives exceptionally persuasive and articulate treatment: the first movement’s songful second subject can seldom have sounded more bewitching, and the toe-tapping Irish revelry in the finale is projected with thrilling abandon by these classy performers (their softer-spoken ASV rivals don’t stoke the fires to anything like the same degree).
The Potton Hall recording is absolutely first-rate to match and, as should be abundantly clear by now, this is a superlative issue; indeed, I’m already itching to hear what Jackson and Wass will make of the magnificently mean and moody Second Sonata.
-- Andrew Achenbach, Gramophone
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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.
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Violinist Laurence Jackson studied at the Chethams School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music with Emanuel Hurwitz, Maurice Hasson and Anne-Sophie Mutter. From 1994 to 2006, Jackson was leader of the Maggini Quartet, with whom he toured throughout the USA, Canada and Europe to much critical acclaim. Worldwide sales of their recordings for their Naxos series have exceeded 100,000 discs. In 2006, he accepted the position of Concertmaster of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, with whom he also appears as soloist. Jackson plays a violin made by J. B. Vuillaume, circa 1850.
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Ashley Wass (born 26 March 1977) is a British pianist. Graduating from the Royal Academy of Music in 2001, he was winner of the 1997 London Piano Competition, a prizewinner at the 2000 Leeds Piano Competition, and a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist. Wass has performed at many of the world's finest concert halls including Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall and Vienna Konzerthaus. He has also performed with numerous leading ensembles and partners. Wass was Professor of Piano at the Royal College of Music from 2008 to 2018, and has been Director of Music at the Yehudi Menuhin School since 2020.
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