Alexander Baillie cello
John Thwaites piano
SOMM CD 0704
This disc of Bax’s complete music for cello and piano takes its title from the thematic links between that orchestral work and his Cello Sonata. This is a big serious piece; its earnest first movement has something of his First Symphony about it, if not its driven fury.
Indeed, the music was so often striving to express more than it could, that I found myself mentally orchestrating it; and when the slow movement opens with a direct quotation from Spring Fire it is hard to forget the orchestra, though arguably this penny-plain version is even more nakedly eloquent than the lavish original. The finale releases much of the tension, though even here the gaiety has something of a slightly manic feel to it.
In contrast the following Sonatina is brisk, snappy and to the point; if the Sonata is a single malt this is a champagne cocktail; for me the highlight is (as so often with Bax) the lovelorn lament of the Andante.
The disc opens with Folk-Tale; not a Bardic rumination on Ossian, but another lament (for lost love?) alternately grieving and protesting. It ends with the substantial Legend-Sonata. (Did that ungainly hybrid title hinder its acceptance, eg Britten’s Cello Symphony or Prokofiev’s Symphony-Concerto?)
Again, the mood is lighter, and again the slow movement builds on an earlier work (here The Garden of Fand) to build a beautifully wrought and impassioned climax…which again, I could not help feeling cried out for orchestration. The work signs off with a Rondo-Allegro which eventually restores good cheer and well-being, even if there is a whiff of note-spinning en route.
This is only the third such a collection in seventy years (following Lyrita and ASV). Why is it so rarely taken up? I suspect that Bax’s very private emotional world is now remote from modern sensibilities. If the Sonata has the grimness of Shostakovitch, it lacks his bitter irony or political glamour; if the melodies are as poignant as Rachmaninov their emotions are more complex and subtle.
I fear that Bax’s chamber music will remain a minority taste; but the good news is that if it is to your taste then these excellent new performances and recordings should offer many hours of rewarding listening.
Review by Kevin Mandry