Arnold Bax's 7th, and final, symphony received its premiere with Sir Adrian Boult conducting the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall in June 1939 - a British Council commission for the New York World's Fair of that year.
Written at Bax's Scottish retreat on the wild west coast of Scotland, the 7th is a "farewell" symphony, both in the sense of being Bax's last, and in the musical summing up of the journey he had started with his 1st symphony. He was, however still trying something new in the theme and variations of the final movement, which ends with Bax's usual epilogue - though the shortest yet.
Like Lyrita's recording of the 5th Symphony, this is conducted by Raymond Leppard, and it brought to the end Lyrita's Bax Symphony cycle - uncompleted unfortunately, since they never recorded the 3rd or 4th symphonies. To complete my cycle of the Bax symphony recordings I will turn to Bryden Thomson's Chandos issues of the 3rd and 4th very soon.
Click on the sleevenote scan below for more information. Other music by Bax - including the symphonies - on this blog can be found here.
Cartridge: Yamaha MC-1x
Phono amp: Graham Slee Accession MC
Turntable: CTC Classic 301 with SME M2-12R
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