Orchestral Works Vol 9: The Truth About the Russian Dancers / etc

'A really enjoyable disc, this - good to have it back.'
Gramophone

'Bax's orchestral virtuosity and pictorial skills were equal to anyone's in that era and his sumptuous palette of sounds is here done the classiest possible justice by Bryden Thomson and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.'
Classic FM Magazine

'A really enjoyable disc, this - good to have it back.'
Gramophone

'Bax's orchestral virtuosity and pictorial skills were equal to anyone's in that era and his sumptuous palette of sounds is here done the classiest possible justice by Bryden Thomson and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.'
Classic FM Magazine

The latest re-issue in the Bax Orchestral Works series is music he composed for theatre. Bax may seem an unlikely composer of ballet music, but these works demonstrate that he was in fact richly qualified, and the results are products of a composer who had a long-standing ambition to compose for the ballet. 'Above all, this is almost unadulteratedly happy Bax, unshadowed, often gorgeously opulent; sometimes gorgeously stage-struck and vociferous. Bax, you get the distinct impression, was blissfully stage-struck and ballet-daft, and enjoyed every minute of his brief career in the theatre' wrote Gramophone on the original release.

Bax was commissioned to write The Truth about the Russian Dancers, a J.M Barrie extravaganza from the 1920s (originally intended for the Ballet Russes), written for a production that was half dance, half stage play and enjoyed great popularity at the time, but the complete orchestral score was not heard again until the premiere recording on Chandos. This is coupled with the shorter piece, From Dusk Till Dawn which presents a clear Ravelian influence. Highlighting the Russian elements of Bax's style at their clearest, the two works are performed complete and prove to be 'lively and fanciful pictorial music which makes for agreeable listening.' (Dance and Dancers). Both scores give a flavour of a facet of British musical life in the early 1920s, and are most closely related to Bax's Tone Poems. They 'savour the lyrical warmth and generous orchestral colours, which reflects Bax's self-description as 'a brazen Romantic' (Dance and Dancers).