Version: 1.0    Issue: 17    Date: 18/09/2007

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If you are susceptible to Bax’s Celtic twilight then there is no greater exponent of the composer than Vernon Handley on Chandos; after his masterly set of the seven symphonies on the same label he has now made a recording of some of the tone poems and the almost forgotten Sinfonietta. But then perhaps his chamber music is the easiest point to venture into his world. A composer who is noted for one work if he is noted for anything is Roy Harris, his third symphony being perhaps the archetypal American Symphony, in a single movement of just under twenty minutes which builds inexorably from wide-spanning pastoral opening to a jagged, jazzy conclusion of great power. Naxos are starting another cycle in their American Classics Series of his 13 symphonies, a coupling from Marin Alsop, this time with not her Bournemouth orchestra but her Colorado Symphony of symphonies 3 and 4. Symphony 4 is called the Folk Song Symphony and is a choral setting of some well-known American folksongs. His fourth symphony is perhaps not the most profound piece in the world but still hugely enjoyable Fine performances although I cannot hear the vibraphone in the Third Symphony. With her Bournemouth orchestra she has just recorded in the same series some more Bernstein, his Serenade for Violin and Orchestra after Plato with the American Russian violinist Phillippe Quint, his ballet Facsimile, and his witty Divertimento, one of his last works in which he makes many quotations and allusions to his own works and those of other composers. More Bax, this time on the piano from Ashley Wass also on Naxos, after two powerful issues containing the four piano sonatas in excellent performances he turns in volume three of the complete piano music to some of the smaller pieces, some of which you may know in their later orchestral versions, roll on the piano and orchestral works. Peter Donohoe in his British Piano Concerto series again for Naxos has just released the Hamilton Harty Piano Concerto, Rachmaninov with an Irish accent but greatly entertaining, this is coupled with some of Harty’s orchestral music. Again excellent performances and recordings. Finally, from Hyperion a coupling in their Romantic Piano Concerto Series sees two other neglected British piano concertos, the John Ireland and the original version of the Delius in its three movement form. The pianist is Piers Lane and the conductor the ubiquitous David Lloyd-Jones

 

Bax Orchestral Music Chandos CHAN 10362

Harris Symphonies 3 & 4 Naxos 8.559227

Bernstein Serenade 8.559245

Bax Piano Music 8.557769

Harty Piano Concerto 8.557731

Delius & Ireland Piano Concertos Hyperion CDA 67296