Bax - Northern Ballad No.1

The music of Sir Arnold Bax was, for a long time, quite neglected. His style was a kind of chromatic romanticism that ploughed it's own way in a backwater of contemporary music, while other more adventurous composers took the limelight.

Bax's seven symphonies - masterpieces in their own way, had to wait until the very late 1990s onward for two recording cycles - by David Lloyd-Jones on Naxos and Vernon Handley's splendid set on Chandos. These were released over 45 years after Bax's death in 1953. The "Bax revival" was kickstarted by Handley at Guildford in the 1960s, and an appreciation of Bax's art slowly gathered momentum. Helping in this was the present 1972 recording by the ever-so enterprising Lyrita company who did so much for neglected British composers.

For a long while Bax was only known for his tone poem Tintagel - a piece that was the major draw for this record, especially with the doyen of British conductors at the time, Sir Adrian Boult, conducting. But hiding on the disc under the rather prosaic title Northern Ballad No.1 is a piece that deserves to sit alongside Tintagel.

The work was completed in 1927, and in 1931 Bax wrote in a programme note that "it is meant simply as a general impression of the fiery romantic life of the of the Highlands of Scotland before the opening up of the country subsequent to the '45" (the 1745 rebellion). Bax reportedly called himself a "brazen romantic", and his sensibilities were drawn to the celtic fringes of the British Isles, and Ireland.

Lyrita recordings were usually made by the Decca recording team, and are always of a very high standard. The very opposite of what you'd find on a Phase4 record, the sound is spacious and natural with the only spotlighting done by the conductors baton (a very long one in Boult's case). Turn this one up loud and enjoy!

Cartridge: Soundsmith Zephyr MIMC Star

Phono amp: Graham Slee Reflex M + Elevator EXP step-up

Turntable: Sony PS-X600 Biotracer direct drive