Bax: Symphony No. 2 / November Woods

Description

Arnold Bax (1883-1953)Symphony No. 2 in Eminor and C major; November WoodsThe son of cultured and well-to-do English parents, Arnold Bax was bornin Streatham but spent much of his childhood in Hampstead, where the familylater settled, taught at home by a private tutor and strongly influenced by thecultured and comfortable environment in which he found himself. His earlyinterest in music persuaded his father, a barrister, to allow him to enter theRoyal Academy of Music in London at the age of seventeen. There he became apiano pupil of Tobias Matthay, while studying composition under the WagnerianFrederick Corder.In 1902 Bax came across the poem The Wanderings of Usheen (Oisin), byIrish poet W.B.Yeats, and discovered in himself a strong Celtic identity,although racially descended from a family long established in East Anglia. Heand his brother, the writer Clifford Bax, made their first visit to Ireland andwere captivated. Here they established themselves for a time, associating withleading figures in Irish cultural life, while Bax himself won a reputation as apoet and writer, assuming, for this literary purpose, the name Dermot O'Byrneand studying Irish legend and the old Irish language. A visit to Russia with aUkrainian girl that he had met in London and her Italian friend introduced afurther influence to his cultural formation. While his pursuit of the Ukrainiangirl came to nothing, he was able to absorb something of the spirit of Russianmusic, secular and sacred, and was dazzled by the glories of the ImperialBallet, as he was to be by Dyagilev's Ballets russes on his return toLondon. His return also brought marriage to the daughter of the distinguishedSpanish pianist Carlos Sobrino and the present of a house from his father. Bax,however, could not settle in London. Before long the couple had rented a housein Ireland, and then returned to England, but eventually separating, therebyallowing Bax to pursue his own musical and amorous ventures in a measure offreedom.In many ways it must seem that the 1920s brought Bax his period ofgreatest success. He was prolific in his creativity and his works were widelyperformed. With the end of his marriage he was able to continue his closeassociation with the pianist Harriet Cohen, although this did not precludeother relationships. He wrote a quantity of piano music for Harriet Cohen,including a piano concerto for the left hand after the injury in 1948 that madeuse of her right hand for a time impossible. The 1930s brought public hononrs andat the end of the decade appointment as Master of the King's Musick, althoughhis gifts did not lend themselves easily to the composition of occasionalcelebratory works, as the position seemed to demand. The changes in musicalstyle and taste left Bax to some extent alienated from the world in which hefound himself. Composition continued, however, including a Coronation March in1952 for the accession of the new monarch. He died, as he might have wished, inIreland, while stayin