In the golden age of vinyl, the English label Lyrita produced a series of Bax symphony recordings conducted by Myer Fredman, Raymond Leppard, Vernon Handley, and Norman Del Mar that gave most listeners their first exposure to the evocative, romantic symphonic music of Arnold Bax (1883-1953). It was one of the most distinguished series of audiophile recordings ever made. Until now Lyrita has only released two of the symphonies on CD (Symphonies 1 & 7) but that is out of print at the moment. [Note: It was issued on CD in 2006; Symphonies Nos. 2 & 5 were released on CD in 2008. Both have been reviewed at Classicstoday.com] There was an even better recording of the Third symphony from the London Symphony and Edward Downes, also long gone. Chandos took a stab at the series during the dawn of the digital era, but its conductor, Bryden Thomson, using slow tempos, took a loose and meandering view of these episodic works that caused them to seem disjointed. Naxos has now entered the ring with just the right conductor and orchestra and produced a series that is every bit the equal of that on Lyrita, but with a welcome twist: it is available at less than half the cost.
In this current installment, David Lloyd-Jones once again leads the excellent Scottish orchestra in a reading that is radiant and lyrical and paced exactly right. The sounds of nature seldom have been so successfully translated into musical expression, and the superb engineering partners the performance hand in glove. If you like Vaughan Williams, especially his Pastoral Symphony, you will no doubt love this music. Start with this, the most popular of the composer’s symphonies, then backtrack to Symphonies 1 & 2, also available on Naxos; then, along with me, keenly anticipate further releases in this magical series. [2/11/2000]
