Bax - Piano Sonata No. 2 (Part 2/3)

Piano Sonata No. 2 (1919)

Like his contemporary York Bowen, Arnold Bax (1883-1953) was an exceptional English composer and pianist. At the age of 16 he was accepted into London's Royal Academy of Music after playing only a few bars from Beethoven's Op. 110. Throughout his life he remained a highly respected pianist, and performed works by major composers, such as Delius, Debussy and Schoenberg in their presence.

Bax initially wrote in a late German Romantic vein, but later he assimilated impressionism and the music of Scriabin heavily influenced his piano works, namely the four massive piano sonatas and an abundance of miniatures. Ironically, it was Bowen's piano works that attracted attention, while Bax's symphonies and tone poems received adulation. In addition to orchestral music, Bax's output includes weighty chamber works and songs, many of which reflect his kinship with Ireland and celtic lore.

According to Lewis Foreman:

"The Second Sonata, still in one movement, is much grimmer in character [than the First Sonata], though also epic in treatment and is dated 19th July 1919. Bax does not give us a specific programme, but we might well assume it to be related to the First World War, or more likely, again the tragedy of the Easter Rising, which is hinted at in the folk-like second subject of the first section. In a letter to Tilly Fleischmann Bax admitted the Sonata was 'concerned with the warring forces of light and darkness'.

The sonata, which plays continuously, broadly subsumes elements of three movements with two new themes in the middle section and the motif of the long threatening introduction to the sonata returning to mark the third. Here, material from the previous two sections are juxtaposed and the work ends with the motif from the introduction now in the major, all passion spent.

The journey from the ominous, foreboding introduction with its distinctive motif (perhaps a 'fate' motif) through the heroic first subject, marked 'Brazen and glitteringly' to the contrasted folk-like second theme, first introduced very quietly, gives the music an enormous emotional span. Bax launches his middle section with a typical lyrical reverie marked to be played very still and concentrated but in the space of four minutes his tune is itself found to be heroic, setting the literal return of the sonatas opening into striking contrast.

By this time we have thoroughly convinced ourselves that Bax's epic score must reflect the composers autobiographical response to the recently ended war or the Easter Rising, or both. Bax reviews his themes in his third section, a movement of conspicuous drama and contrast... The sonata ends as the fate motif from the introduction returns, briefly threatens, but soon becomes a distant muttering, as the light and Bax's vision slowly fades."

Category:

Music

Tags:

• arnold
• bax
• scriabin
• liszt

[littlecanargie]

The recapitulation part is so broad and stunning....

[FiddleRockStar]

If your looking for scores, just check out ISMLP. Google it and witness the bounty of music.

[brotighan]

Absolutely mesmerizing.

I wonder if I could find the scores of the sonata, I live in Russia and I don't think this piece has ever been published here.

[KeithWhalen11]

What an exceptional composer!

[nik19910204]

i haven't heard of bax....but he is...interesting...

[askthemailman]

this is amazing