Towards the end of any major, protracted set of recordings, especially when it has maintained such an outstanding high standard as the Bryden/Chandos series of Bax's orchestral music, there must be quite some trepidation that even Jove will nod and that the mould of excellence will be broken. Well, Thomson has yet to put a foot wrong!' Which CD 'Thomson possesses an intuitive understanding that allows more of the music to compel than one had dared hope...The London Philharmonic plays beautifully...' The Independent Recorded in: All Saints' Church, Tooting, London 3 & 4 April 1986 (Saga Fragment), and 11 & 12 April 1988 (Four songs) Recorded in: St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead, London 2 & 3 November 1988 (Russian Suite) and 23-25 June 1991 (Golden Eagle, Romantric Overture) Producer(s) Brian Couzens (Saga Fragment) Tim Oldham (other works) Sound Engineer(s) Richard Lee (Golden Eagle, Romantic Overture) Ralph Couzens (other works) Janet Middlebrook (Assistant: Four songs) Ben Connellan (Assistant: Russian Suite) Philip Couzens (Assistant: Saga Fragment)) Peter Sheldon (Assistant: other works)
Bax: Symphony No 4, Tintagel / Thomson, Ulster Orchestra
Chandos
CD · 1 disc
$21.99Jul 29, 1992
Although the Fourth cannot be numbered among the best of the Bax symphonies (it is arguably the least concentrated and most hedonistic of the seven), Bryden Thomson's LP with the Ulster Orchestra must have already won it many friends and this CD will win it even more. It is quite simply one of the very best CDs I have heard so far, and has an altogether striking presence and vivid detail that does full justice to Bax's sumptuous orchestral textures and opulent sonorities.
Bryden Thomson and the Ulster Orchestra have earned much praise for their earlier Chandos recording of Bax tone poems—November Woods, The Garden of Fand, Summer Music and The Happy Forest—which in its CD form on CHAN8307 (1/84) collected golden opinions both in these columns and elsewhere. Discussing that Compact Disc, MEO wrote of the ''finely calculated and highly individual character of Bax's orchestration'' being ''more evident than I have ever heard it outside the concert hall''—though I must say opportunities of encountering it there are hardly legion! This CD of the Fourth Symphony and Tintagel deserves an enthusiastic welcome and is a demonstration disc, even by the high standards Chandos have established in this field.
