Neglected British Music

There is a small but vociferous pressure group that is forever bemoaning what they perceive to be the neglect of a number of English ( or more accurately British ) composers from the first half of the 20th century. Arnold Bax is something of a cult figure among this group and the most often cited as indicative of the excellence that goes unnoticed. I think it is fair to say that the work of independant labels such as Naxos and Chandos has put much of this music into the oublic domain, it is the neglect in concert halls and on radio that is still railed against. I tend to think that in most cases posterity has it right and there are no neglected giants but that is not to say the music being championed is without worth. A long preamble to discussing this disk of music by Bax performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by David Lloyd-Jones. The main work on the disk is his Symphony No 4, another symphony which claims the sea as inspiration. Bax wrote in a romantic mode and was out of step with the prevailing musical climate by the time of his death but the passage of time now enables it to be appreciated on a level with European contemporaries. The other two works on the disk are Overture to a Picaresque Comedy, with nods to Strauss, and Nympholet which is an evocation of a victim enraptured by pagan spirits of the wood. The performers have an obvious affinity with the genre being portrayed on this recording.