Customer Reviews

Bax: Piano Works Vol. 2 - Piano Sonatas Nos. 3 & 4; Water Music; Winter Waters

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Like many composers of his time Bax was seduced by the resources of the modern grand piano - by the wealth of textures it can generate and the ease with which new harmonies are revealed by improvisation. It is not at all surprising that his first symphony started life as a piano sonata, since all his orchestral music was piano-inspired; it was imitating the piano that produced the inventiveness and originality of his orchestration. Too much of his music was generated by what sounded good on the piano rather than by a discriminating choice of means to achieve well defined ends. One of the main causes of the difference between his style and that of Vaughan Williams or Holst was that he was a pianist and they were not. Not surprisingly, then, his piano music is particularly revealing of his musical personality. The present CD is the second in a promised complete edition. It includes two of the composer's most haunting tragic utterances - Winter Waters and the Third Sonata -, and in the Fourth Sonata one of the most assured examples of his leaner, cleaner late style. Ashley Wass responds with rare sensitivity to Bax's wayward magic. The recording, notable for resonance rather than clarity, suits this music well.

It may have a bit to do with the recording, but I was struck very forcefully by how much better the fourth sonata here comes across than the third does. The texture of the piano writing in the fourth is much cleaner and clearer, and it shows the player's abilities in a much more favourable light. Ashley Wass is obviously a major new talent. He has a strong grasp of the idiom of this music and he knows how to hold it together; he can build a climax imposingly and he has a powerful and unforced forte, and it goes more or less without saying that his technical accomplishment is comprehensive. He also does not need me or anyone else to tell him that these days this kind of combination of talent, insight and professionalism seems to be the birthright of multitudes.

In time I expect that a more individual and distinctive personality will become apparent in his playing. Indeed I think I'm beginning to detect it already in his accounts of the fourth sonata and of the powerful Winter Waters, and it makes me keen to hear more from him. For now, I wonder whether he has quite realised just how difficult a piece like the third sonata is to bring off with complete success. The piano writing is often bottom-heavy and there is a great deal of chordal, arpeggio and trill/tremolando work in it. Even the slightest hint of unevenness in the touch is made unmercifully apparent, and what is needed is really superhuman control of the finger-pressure, the kind of command that we get from Michelangeli or Gould or Pollini. It also puts a high premium on ultra-skilful use of the pedal, and it could be that this young player would benefit from studying the work of Cziffra, an out-and-out master of that particular technique. That said, Wass seems to me to have the measure of the piece basically, and he is heard to greater advantage in the rest of the recital. The fourth sonata is a less portentous effort than the third and Wass gives it a suitably high-profile reading. The Water Music, Country Tune and `O Dame' variations are lighter stuff and again I was impressed by the idiomatic sense of the performances. In the Winter Waters Bax seems to me to rise to something approaching greatness, and although the piano style is in some ways similar to that in the third sonata I felt that this time Wass set his own stamp on the reading more successfully.

Bax's piano music has more to say to me than his enjoyable but slightly ersatz symphonic poems do. As musical statements the heavier pieces seem more personal to me, with less playing to a Tennyson-loving gallery. The liner-note finds echoes of Debussy and Scriabin in the earlier works (more Scriabin than Debussy I should say), and is wisely unwilling to commit itself regarding influences on the sharply different idiom of the fourth sonata. The Water Music is nothing like Handel's but started life as a ballet score, and is more popular and melodious in expression. The `O Dame' variations are a kind of English music that I always find slightly tedious, but the Country Tune is pleasant enough if not especially memorable.

We are used to some spectacular recorded quality nowadays, and the recording here is not exactly that, but it's very good in general. Whether it is quite right for the third sonata is questionable, but in that instance I suspect that Wass will refine his playing to some extent in later performances to make it recording-proof. The liner-note is really quite good, with some perceptive comments on the music as well as information on the composer. As on other occasions, I want to express appreciation to Naxos for their initiative and imagination in making such music available at moderate cost, and I welcome this new young star on the pianistic block with particular interest.

I am a committed admirer of Arnold Bax's orchestral music, but have never managed to really appreciate his chamber music. Hence, I approached this disc of his piano music with somewhat mixed expectations. Turns out that I was rather convinced - this is if not quite, then close to the Bax I know and love from the orchestral music, full of magic and color and power. The third sonata dates from 1926 (and thus between his second and third symphonies), and it is a most compelling work; a little flashy, perhaps, but energetically inventive and imaginative. It works its way exploratively from somewhat shapeless forms at the outset of the first movement, through a rather desolate slow movement with gleams of sunlight penetrating through the bleak textures, to an almost ecstatic finale. Ashely Wass turns out to be an excellent advocate of this music, with excellent phrasing and shaping of the music and with a large palette of colors.

The performance of the fourth sonata is equally impressive. Here the textures are slightly more neo-classical, with a little less rummaging around and a cleaner structure, but still with some of the visionary energy familiar from Bax's finest works (although not ultimately as memorable) - and Wass has a sure grasp of that underlying power, thus providing an excellent interpretation, convincingly responding to the various nuances of texture and color throughout. This is, in the end, a rather powerful - almost exhausting - work (just wish the various themes and developements would linger a little longer in the mind afterwards), and the lighter (i.e. less ambitious, not necessarily more light-hearted) music following it makes for a welcome contrast. The Water Music is reflective and soothing, while the Winter Waters (a transcription from the ballet) is a darkly hued work with a strong sense of impending tragedy about it. The Country Tune is not as innocent as it sounds, but O Dame Get Up and Bake Your Pies is mere rumbustious fun. Throughout Wass's playing is quite impressive, and the sound quality is excellent. This disc is thus firmly recommended, at least to anyone who finds Bax's orchestral music appealing.

The performances of the two sonatas are fine, if not quite as memorable as the ones by Eric Parkin on Chandos (now available only in a 4-CD set of the entire Bax solo piano works).

Actually, the piece that's the reason to purchase this disk is the "Water Music," a short (~5 minute) work of such exquisite beauty, it may actually be the most perfect example of an English piano miniature ever penned. Originally written as an orchestral number for two Bax ballets ("Tamara" first ... and later "The Truth About Russion Dancers" for Diaghilev), the piano version Bax made later sounds as if it was written this way originally. Once you hear its beautiful, plaintive melody, you will never forget it.

[BTW, the orchestra version is also ravishing ... you can hear it on the Chandos recording of The Truth About Russian Dancers with Bryden Thomson and the LPO.]

Get this, then, not for the two Sonatas, but for a brief piano miniature you'll return to again and again. At Naxos' "value" price, it's well worth the investment.