This new CD of Arnold Bax’s Fourth Symphony comes up against Bryden Thomson’s justly revered Chandos recording–the start of that label’s Bax cycle, and still the best in the series. While I generally have preferred David Lloyd-Jones to Thomson in previous issues, he loses this particular sweepstakes, if only by a hair. Thomson takes a couple of extra minutes over the symphony’s first movement and the gain in clarity of articulation and harmonic intelligibility scores decisively over Lloyd-Jones’ hastier approach. You can hear the difference right away in comparing the respective opening pages of both works. In the slow movement, it’s Naxos that has a slight edge: Lloyd-Jones’ observance of the “moderato” qualification of the basic “lento” tempo binds the music’s various episodes together more firmly, though there’s little to chose between the two finales in terms of tempo or interpretation. So for the sonics and the superior first movement, Chandos takes this palm.
The two couplings don’t change matters significantly. Thomson’s more relaxed version of the unfortunately-titled Nympholept has more atmosphere and sex-appeal than Lloyd-Jones captures, but only marginally so. The latter’s rendition of the delightful Overture to a Picaresque Comedy (the finest of Bax’s shorter orchestral works, with a particularly lovely central slow tune) suffers from excessive haste and sonics that, when combined with the very quick tempo, reveal less of the work’s riotously colorful instrumental detail than they ideally should. Mind you, there’s nothing terribly wrong here, and absent the competition you might not find anything objectionable at all. In any case, at Naxos’ price, you can afford to listen and make your own comparisons.
