David Harbin writes about his limited enjoyment of the Naxos' Bax.  I share
his views.  This is a good set, but something seems to be missing from each
performance, and it's not always clear what that something is.  Sonically,
Naxos is on par with Chandos and Bryden Thompson's performance.  But that's
where the similarities end.  Thompson's performances are not exactly grand,
but they are extraordinarily good -- throughout all seven symphonies.  And,
that's perhaps their limitation; they're very good, but after awhile, they
all begin to sound the same.  This may not be Thompson's fault as much as
Bax's.  Maybe its chauvinistic, but the British usually are the best at
performing their own.  That's why I think the Thompson's succeeds.  One
wishes, however, that Sir Adrian Boult had left us an example of how he
would approach these scores.  Heck, I wish he had left us much more of
everything!

D. Stephen Heersink <[log in to unmask]>