Bax Orchestral Works
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax
Label: Chandos
Magazine Review Date: 2/1994
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 76
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CHAN9168
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Festival Overture |
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer Bryden Thomson, Conductor London Philharmonic Orchestra |
Christmas Eve on the Mountains |
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer Bryden Thomson, Conductor London Philharmonic Orchestra |
(4) Orchestral Sketches, Movement: Dance of Wild Irravel |
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer Bryden Thomson, Conductor London Philharmonic Orchestra |
Paean |
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer Bryden Thomson, Conductor London Philharmonic Orchestra |
Nympholept |
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer Bryden Thomson, Conductor London Philharmonic Orchestra |
Tintagel |
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer
Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax, Composer Bryden Thomson, Conductor Ulster Orchestra |
Composer or Director: Michael Berkeley
Label: ASV
Magazine Review Date: 2/1994
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 27
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CDDCB1101
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra |
Michael Berkeley, Composer
Emma Johnson, Clarinet Michael Berkeley, Composer Northern Sinfonia Sian Edwards, Conductor |
Père du doux répos |
Michael Berkeley, Composer
Henry Herford, Baritone Michael Berkeley, Composer |
Flighting |
Michael Berkeley, Composer
Emma Johnson, Clarinet Michael Berkeley, Composer |
Author: Edward Greenfield
Not that the concerto should be regarded as just a spin-off from the opera. The baldness and aggression of the piece in its own right is established from the start, with the soloist thrusting home in a rhythmic pattern centring on one note, underpinned by elaborate timpani writing. It says much for Emma Johnson's concentration that she instantly compels complete attention. Though the writing involves a high proportion of stratospheric shrieking that reminds me of the expressionist style of Harrison Birtwistle and Peter Maxwell Davies in the 1960s, and lyricism is at a premium, the clear structure of the piece leads the ear on. Berkeley in such one-movement works has been influenced, like so many composers, by the supreme example of Sibelius's Seventh Symphony, and here the long exposition section leads to a clear landmark on a high sustained note on the violins (track 1, 7'04''), before the fluttering notes of an ever more violent Vivo section begin. After a chopping sequence, not unlike Bernard Hermann's celebrated music for Psycho, the central Adagio follows (10'00''). Yet even that meditative Adagio brings only a temporary repose, leading to a final agonized shriek of pain (17'00''). Only then does Berkeley allow a brief, lyrical elegiac close, the more welcome for its delay.
That closing section leads directly on to the two other, much briefer, simpler works on the disc, what the composer himself regards as ''fitting pendants''. Pere du doux repos, a setting for unaccompanied baritone of a sonnet by the sixteenth-century French poet, Pontus de Tyard, carries logically on from the epilogue of the concerto. In turn the solo clarinet work, Flighting, grew from the song, bringing out further the lyrical side of Emma Johnson. Though this programme does not present the easy ride many will expect from this soloist and this composer, ASV are to be congratulated on an issue which presents them both so vividly in a new light, as characterful as ever. The players of the Northern Sinfonia under Sian Edwards provide dedicated accompaniment in the concerto, not least the brass and woodwind (including rival clarinettists), and the recording, made in a sympathetic hall in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, presents the piece with clarity and warmth.'
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