November Woods / Happy Forest / Summer Music

Bax (Artist), Thomson (Artist), Ulster Orchestra (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 29, 1992)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Chandos
• ASIN: B000000AC0
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #442,963 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. November Woods

2. The Happy Forest

3. The Garden Of Fand

4. Summer Music

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bax Glories recalled, March 1, 2000

By 

K. Farrington (Missegre, France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: November Woods / Happy Forest / Summer Music (Audio CD)

This CD is the heartland of Bax's prolific output. Bax stopped composing Tone Poems and got into full blown symphonies before he retired 'like a grocer'. All four works reveal a master of orchestral colour and atmosphere. 'The Garden of Fand' is Bax's celtic depiction of the sea, its shimmering and ever changing textures and melodies seem to have always been with me. I was brought up on the 1958 Barbirolli Golden Guinea recording on vinyl, the recording quality was dreadful but the music still had the fairy magic. Thomson keeps the magic of the Barbirolli, thank heavens. To verify this, listen to the central section when the cellos intone a phrase before the bubbling woodwind which seems to be a painting of the Atlantic wind itself, leading into the flute solo that end up with a questioning semi cadence with the four horns. I know of no other composer who could summon up the magic of the sea like this and whenever I am alone with a friendly sea, I 'play' this work through in my mind, reassuring myself that I am participating in the same glory that Bax saw in 1916. The Happy Forest is a altogether jollier work with a host of different, 'happy' orchestral episodes that Thomson manages without fault. The central dreamy section with its beautiful theme is one of Bax's great tunes, it is a pity the episode is so short. November Woods is not one of my favourite Bax tone poems, it is predictive of some of the stormy sequences in his later symphonies but is brilliantly played here. The smaller work and less known, Summer Music is the product of an untroubled soul who is happy with their life at the time. It is very reminiscent of Delius with its woodwind arabesques and string writing like a summer heat haze. The ending is truly glorious and makes me think of those days in my life before I encountered school and the worries and duties of life. This disk is my all time favourite (of my 300+) and will never be replaced in that capacity. I cannot say more.