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Author Archives: Bax Admin

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Exploring Arnold Bax’s ‘Apple-Blossom Time’ for Piano (1915)

Posted on December 23, 2020 by Bax AdminJanuary 4, 2021

The Monthly Musical Record (September 1915, p.259f) critic reviewing the score of Apple-Blossom Time, suggests that ‘The art of Mr Bax is a correlative of the characteristic canvas work of Mr E.W. Hornel’. This is an interesting comparison. Edward Atkinson Hornel (1864–1933) was an Australian-born artist who moved to Kirkcudbright in Scotland. He specialised in Celtic and Japanese imagery – and pictures of orchards. The reviewer continues by noting that ‘summer happiness, trees in full blossom, happy carefree childhood, rich luxurious natural setting, all appear in the music of Bax as clearly as they are seen in the pictures of Hornel.’ As to the musical content of Apple-Blossom Time, it is noted that ‘The textures, the vivid lines, the almost kaleidoscopic colouring clearly defined yet all blended in a subtle way by exquisite mastery of mood’ also suggests the work of Hornel.

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Posted in Essays & Articles

Arnold Bax: The Premiere of ‘A Northern Ballad’ in Glasgow, 14 November 1931

Posted on August 14, 2020 by Bax AdminAugust 20, 2020

Since first hearing Arnold Bax’s A Northern Ballad in the early 1970’s, I have felt that it is underappreciated. The conventional critique of this tone poem places the ‘plot’ or the ‘action’ in the Highlands of Scotland. Nevertheless, as Lewis Foreman has pointed out (Lyrita Sleeve Notes, SRCS 62) ‘the programmatic origins of the work are not admitted in the score.’ The only clue is provided in Bax’s short note included in the premiere’s programme booklet and subsequently reprinted in the Royal Philharmonic Society Programme (3 December 1931). It was latterly printed in Parlett (1999):

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Posted in Essays & Articles

BMS EVENTS TO MARK COMPOSER SIR ARNOLD BAX’S RECOGNITION IN SCOTLAND

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Bax AdminMarch 16, 2020

THE exciting news that internationally renowned British composer, Sir Arnold Bax, is to be officially recognised in Scotland will be welcomed by BMS members and all classical music enthusiasts.

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Posted in Announcements

Bax Concerts

Posted on February 4, 2020 by Bax AdminDecember 28, 2020

Richard Masters gives the US premiere and additional US performances of Sir Arnold Bax’s Sonata in E-flat (The sonata Bax later revised to become his First Symphony). Also on his program includes keyboard works by Orlando Gibbons, Brahms Six Pieces … Continue reading →

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Test

Posted on November 8, 2019 by Bax AdminNovember 8, 2019

Hello hello hello

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Following Bax to Ukraine

Posted on November 4, 2019 by Bax AdminNovember 8, 2019

Arnold Bax spent at least two months on the Skarzhinska Estate at Kruglik, near Lubny in Ukraine between May and July 1910. Alan Sutton recently visited Lubny and Kruglik and found some interesting historical background to the Skarzhinska family and to pre-revolutionary Lubny, impressions of which Bax took back with him and incorporated into later works.

“Fair and smiling is the Ukrainian land, a fecund Slavonic Demeter”, wrote Bax at the opening of this section in “Farewell, My Youth”. Ukraine was known as the breadbasket of Russia during the last years of the Tsars, and to that extent compares well in modern times with agriculture being the one sector to have prospered in recent years. In other respects, the 20th century has not been kind to Lubny, and the Skarzhinska Estate itself has disappeared: nor was I able to find precisely where it stood. However my visit did uncover some fascinating history about Natalia Skarzhinska’s family, and other pictures and impressions which will be of interest to those interested in Arnold Bax and his works.

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Posted in Essays & Articles

Frank Merrick – The Legacy Recordings

Posted on October 18, 2019 by Bax AdminFebruary 18, 2021

Harriet Cohen’s influence on Sir Arnold Bax’s music was arguably greatest on his piano music for which she was his muse and frequent dedicatee as well as constant performer. It is therefore surprising that she recorded so little of it commercially aside from the Viola Sonata with William Primrose and a handful of piano miniatures. There also exists a live recording of Winter Legends from a BBC broadcast but sadly none of her performances of the piano sonatas were captured either on vinyl or tape. While many have claimed she was a pianist of limited ability (superb in Bach but compromised in pieces requiring a more formidable technique), she still possessed an understanding of Bax’s music that she acquired from having known the composer on very intimate terms for much of their lives. She also imposed an unofficial ban on others performing his piano music, which of course prevented it from being played and recorded by pianists who might have been better able to promote it during Bax’s lifetime. As a result, we have very few recordings of Bax’s piano music recorded during the composer’s life but we are lucky to again be able to hear one set of the sonatas and selected piano pieces played by a friends and contemporary of the composer who understood his intentions and whose playing of these major works deserves to be described as authoritative.

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Posted in Latest Reviews

Review by Christopher Webber – Frank Merrick and Henry Holst play Bax Violin Sonatas, etc.

Posted on August 29, 2019 by Bax AdminFebruary 4, 2021

Frank Merrick & Henry Holst (Nimbus Grand Piano, 4 CD set) Hot on the heels of Nimbus’s Frank Merrick: A Recorded Legacy, a bumper box of 9 CDs centred on the pianist’s pioneering recordings of Bax’s sonatas and a handful of shorter works – including Paean which was dedicated to him – comes this equally valuable supplement for piano and violin. Merrick’s partner throughout 4 CDs of underexposed 20th c. repertoire is the Danish violinist Henry Holst, a pupil of Carl Nielsen who led the pre-war Berlin Philharmonic under Furtwängler and went on to become principal professor of violin at the Royal Manchester College of Music for thirty years, while continuing his high-profile career as an orchestral leader and soloist.

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Posted in Latest Reviews

The Trio Partout plays Bax, Debussy, Harald Genzmer and Johannes Maria Staud.

Posted on August 29, 2019 by Bax AdminSeptember 25, 2019

Play of Colours (Farbenspiel) Trio Partout. The reason Bax’s Elegiac Trio has been recorded so frequently – more often than any other of his works excepting Tintagel and the Clarinet Sonata – has something to do with its delectable brevity, but more to do with the fact that it makes an ideal companion to Debussy’s famous sonata for the same, unusual forces. Because the English work was written one year after the French, the assumption has often been made that its composer was consciously writing an hommage: but Graham Parlett’s recent examination of composition, performance and publication dates suggests strongly that Bax could not have heard Debussy’s masterly sonata (or studied the score) before writing his own. The near-simultaneous appearance of these lovely works may well have been happy chance.

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Posted in Latest Reviews

St John’s Smith Square, London

Posted on June 17, 2019 by Bax AdminJune 17, 2019

Thursday June 20, 2019 at 19:30 St John’s Smith Square, London Bax: Elegiac Trio for flute, viola and harp Alwyn: Naiades Boyle: Trio Notturno Debussy: Children’s Corner, suite (arr. Carlos Salzedo) Takemitsu: And then I knew ’twas wind Debussy: Sonate … Continue reading →

Posted in Upcoming Concerts

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