Arnold Bax was a 20th-century English composer perhaps best remembered for his early tone poems, many of which are based on Celtic legends and fairy tales. His style is unabashedly late-romantic and can be compared to Rachmaninov or Delius. Like both of those men, Bax was fortunate enough to have private income, which allowed him to spend his early adulthood living on the western coast of Ireland, where he steeped himself in the native folklore, learned Gaelic and made a name for himself as a poet.
Bax's most creative period was around the time of World War One, in which he did not serve because of a heart condition. 'The Bard of the Dimbovitza,' a song cycle based on a then-popular collection of specious Romanian folk song lyrics, was composed in 1914 but later revised, while the 'In Memorium' of 1916 is one of a number of elegiac pieces Bax wrote for victims of the war. In 1918 Bax deserted his wife and children to live with the pianist Harriet Cohen and thirty years later he wrote the 'Concertante for Piano (Left Hand) and Orchestra' for her. Conductor Vernon Handley, a long-time champion of Bax's music, delivers committed performances lushly recorded by Chandos.