Bax - Symphony No. 6 - Lyrita: SRCD296 - CD

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Here's yet another valuable reissue from Lyrita's vaults. Norman Del Mar's pioneering 1966 account of Bax's Sixth Symphony has held up extremely well. Occupying an interpretative middle ground... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Release Date: 2nd Jul 2007
Catalogue No: SRCD296
Label: Lyrita
Length: 75 minutes

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Bax: Symphony No. 6, GP. 331

Work length39:32

New Philharmonia Orchestra
Norman Del Mar
Recorded: 18-20 July 1966
Recording Venue: Kingsway Hall, London

I. Moderato - Allegro con fuoco

Track length10:26

II. Lento, molto espressivo

Track length10:52

III. Introduction - Scherzo and Trio - Epilogue

Track length18:14

Bax: Irish Landscape

Work length7:28

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Vernon Handley

Bax: Rogue's Comedy Overture

Work length10:54

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Vernon Handley

Bax: Overture to Adventure

Work length9:28

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Vernon Handley

Bax: Work in Progress Overture

Work length8:18

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Vernon Handley

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Reviews

2010

Here's yet another valuable reissue from Lyrita's vaults. Norman Del Mar's pioneering 1966 account of Bax's Sixth Symphony has held up extremely well. Occupying an interpretative middle ground between the thrilling thrust and narrative coherence of Vernon Handley's muchpraised recording (part of his Gramophone Award-winning cycle – see page 115) and the colourfully expressive languor of Bryden Thomson's, Del Mar may be the most satisfying of the lot. Like Handley, Del Mar makes sense of the symphony's unusual structure (the finale is a fierce scherzo positioned between a dark introduction and elegiac epilogue) while allowing one to savour more of the details. The result remains the most emotionally potent on disc.
Note, for instance, how warmly the New Philharmonia strings sing their opening cantilena at the beginning of the slow movement. And although he is not as graceful as Handley, Del Mar brings far more character and incident to the finale's scherzo section.
The CD is rounded out with shorter works performed by Handley and the RPO, including a succinctly passionate, though somewhat roughedged, reading of the atmospheric Irish Landscape (1913). The conductor's recording of the Rogue'sComedy Overture (1936), on the above-mentioned Chandos set, is slightly more frisky than this one – but only slightly. And while neither the Overture toAdventure (1936) nor the Overture: Work in Progress (1943) is top-drawer Bax, both are attractively vivacious and dispatched with élan.

December 2007

Like Handley, Del Mar makes sense of the symphony's unusual structure (the finale is a fierce scherzo positioned between a dark introduction and elegiac epilogue) while allowing one to savour more of the details. The result remains the most emotionally potent on disc. Note, for instance, how warmly the New Philharmonic strings sing their opening cantilena at the beginning of the slow movement. And although it is not as graceful as Handley, Del Mar brings far more character and incident to the finale's scherzo section.

Offer,Bax - Symphony No. 6

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