Octo_Russ

Bax - Symphonic Poems [Lloyd Jones-Royal Scottish National Orchestra] 

This was a great experience today, five of Bax's best known Symphonic Poems on a well filled disc, now i really can't believe that this disc represents Bax's debut in my Blog, how did that happen?, for me he's quite a major British Composer, Chandos really got the ball rolling in doing a major survey of all of his music, and i bought a fair number from that label [i thoroughly recommend the Third Symphony, it's a beauty], and now Naxos are getting in on the act, but his Symphonic Poems are almost like single symphonic movements, maybe easier to digest, in listening to this disc today, i marvelled at how much these sound like cast off's from Holst's Planets, at times there's almost direct quotations, one of the problems i've had with Bax's music in the past, is that he's wonderful with sonorities, his soundworld is very inventive, but his overall structure might leave something to be desired, as his creations wander all over the place, so it was good to sort these similar sounding Poems out into more individual pigeon holes, an enlightening experience.

David Lloyd-Jones is British, born in 1934, makes him 77, he recorded this disc in 1995-1996 and 2002, the front cover is so much better than the usual Naxos issues, a really nice winter picture, for once Naxos get it right.

I played this disc on 'random' on my player, and the first track to come up was 'The Happy Forest', a lively piece, reminded me very much of Jupiter from Holst's Planets, it's the shortest piece on the disc by far, and the one that impressed me the most, it has a jovial main theme [0:25+], a spritely tune that wouldn't go amiss on some old British film, very much fuelled by the woodwinds and brass, i guess sounding like a seafaring caper, but there's a gorgeous central section, it's introduced by a lazy flute and harp [3:18-3:41], and it develops into a truly languid, full of dreamy violins wallow, with a strumming harp in the background, the whole thing is repeated twice for good effect [3:42-7:40], and the main tune returns for a 2 minute blast, the ending is quite jokily done, finishing not on a big climax, but rather off handedly, once you put the piece under the microscope, you see some very interesting things.

Here's Lloyd-Jones conducting The Happy Forest on YouTube.