D. Stephen Heersink wrote:

>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.

To me, it's grandeur. He is a little "small" sounding and crisp. That's the
big plus of the Lyritas.

>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.

Agreed that they do sound the same.  My feeling is that Thomson emphasizes
the romantic at the expense of the dramatic.  (Chandos's sound may play a
role, too.) I find that Bax's symphonies are a matter of balance between
the two.  One could say that Lloyd-Jones might lean too far to the
dramatic.  Tricky stuff.

>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!

Absolutely and without question.  What little Bax Boult did was terrific.
What a set of Bax symphonies he'd have produced.  It might have ended the
discussion right there.  And maybe JB, too.  Right now, the best hope is
Handley, given the Bax I've heard from him.

Roger Hecht