Bax Editorial – October 2014

After a lengthy sabbatical, the Bax site returns with a new design, new location but the same commitment to promoting the music of one of the most individual and complex composers of the 20^th Century. I’m very pleased the Bax site is returning now as this past year has seen the release of several superb Bax recordings that deserve more attention and praise and are reviewed on this site This past month also saw a major new release from Chandos that we’re told completes the label’s 30-year project to record all of Bax’s orchestral music (they’ve not quite met that goal). We’ve also seen the revival of two very early Bax orchestral scores including his student work, the Variations for Orchestra from 1904, as well as Bax’s first attempt at a symphony, his Symphony in F from 1907. The later work was orchestrated by Martin Yates and recorded by Dutton while the Variations were recorded just last month, also by Dutton. These are major events and a review of the Chandos disc is now available on the site while a review of the Dutton Symphony disc will soon follow.

The new site has some catching up to do in terms of covering several buy tadalafil brand online Baxian events from this past year but in the meantime, please browse through the new material and feel free to contact me with any comments or suggestion on what you’d like to see the Bax site do next.

I’d like to thank this month’s featured interviewee, the brilliant young Irish Pianist Michael McHale, for allowing me to print our discussion on Bax. McHale has included Bax in several of his most recent discs including his first solo album featuring piano music of and about Ireland. His insights into performing Bax are very much worth reading. I’d also like to thank Len Mullenger who for many years has hosted the Bax Web Site on his Music on the Web Server. He has never charged for the space and has been a terrific advocate for the site as well as dear friend. The relocation of this site to the new server is solely for the purpose of giving me greater access to the site so I can make updates more frequently.

And finally, I’d like to thank Paul Godden and his website design agency, Sparticle, for his brilliant redesign of the Bax site. I’m very much looking forward to an ongoing working relationship with Paul and his company.