SIR ARNOLD BAX (1883-1953)

 

Piano Sonata No.3

Piano Sonata No.4

Water Music

Winter Waters

 

Ashley Wass (piano)

 

Bax’s early life was dominated by the keyboard and in his twenties he appeared in concerts playing his own music. His solo piano music consists of four big-boned sonatas written between 1910 and 1934, several highly characteristic shorter pieces many of them technically in the shadow of Debussy or Scriabin, a sonata that in 1922 became his First Symphony, and alternative versions of orchestral works and short late piano pieces unpublished in his lifetime.

 

This recording includes the Piano Sonatas Nos.3 and 4 as well as four attractive miniatures including the enjoyable O Dame Get Up and Bake Your Pies as well as the tender and haunting Winter Waters, written during the First World War.

 

“Not only does this gifted young pianist possess a rock-solid technique and striking keyboard finesse, his penetrating accounts of both these large-scale, single-movement sonatas make you sit up and listen. … Even more than the magisterial John McCabe, Wass takes us on a genuine voyage of discovery: the control, sense of colour and dynamic range are remarkable. … The sound throughout is vividly truthful. As should be clear by now, this is quite a release; I can hardly wait for future instalments.”

The Gramophone (Editor’s Choice) on Vol.1 8557439.

 

Naxos 8557592