Arnold Bax - Sonata for Viola and Piano gp. 251 (1922)(with full score)

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Mov.I: Molto moderato - Allegro 00:06
Mov.II: Allegro energico, ma non troppo presto 11:21
Mov.III: Molto lento 18:19
Va. William Primrose
Pf. Harriet Cohen
(KZbin has the first performance, but sound is not clear,
so I changed the recording, sorry.)
Bax composed the bulk of his Sonata for Viola and Piano in G major in late 1921, completing the piece on January 9, 1922. The score was published in 1923 by Murdoch with a dedication to violist Lionel Tertis, who, with the composer at the piano, gave the first performance of the piece in London's Aeolian Hall on November 17, 1922. On May 27, 1929, the same two players made a recording of the work that was never released in Bax's lifetime, appearing on the Pearl label only in 1981. It is certainly the fastest performance ever recorded.
For Tertis, Bax had previously written the Viola Concerto, re-designated Phantasy for Viola and Orchestra after its premiere. A fine player, Tertis exerted a positive influence on Bax's writing for the viola.
The Sonata for Viola and Piano is cast in three movements, with two moderately paced ones enclosing a wild scherzo - a format Bax used in his First Violin Sonata (1910 - 1915). Throughout the intensely beautiful Viola Sonata Bax's means are very simple, although it is imbued with expressive chromatic harmonies. Octave leaps punctuate all three movements of the piece, which deservedly ranks among Bax's finest chamber works, the pieces that brought Bax his first significant recognition as a composer in the 1920s.
Bax exploits the lower range of the viola in the first theme, in which the twinkling piano accompaniment sounds above the viola line, which begins by repeating its opening motive of a rising fourth followed by a step. The theme, marked Molto moderato, seems to spin out endlessly with variations on itself and incorporates meter changes and triplets that circle around the tonic pitch, G natural. From this hesitant beginning grows a movement of meditative inwardness infused with moments of passion. The melancholy that pervades the score would become typical in Bax's later works. Instances of modal melody and dance rhythms give the sonata an Irish flavor beginning with the first theme and its vacillation between F sharp and F natural as well as between D sharp and D natural.
Wild and ferocious, the central scherzo evokes a fast Irish dance. A calm central section provides welcome contrast before a return of the scherzo material, leading to a dramatic coda built on the first theme.
Chromaticism characterizes the third and final movement, with its broad lyrical lines. Effectively the slow movement of the sonata, the finale is rounded by a return, at the end, of the opening idea of the first movement. Aside from this, there are no cyclic aspects to the piece. Some writers suggest the finale marks the beginning of Bax's maturity as a composer because of his "modern" use of chromatic harmony. However, Bax's idiom, chromatic harmonies supporting Celtic and Elizabethan melodies, is the language of highly charged romanticism.

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@PointofConnection Жыл бұрын

Wow, what a treasure, the piece begins definitely to pick up as it moves along. I like how the 2nd movement just sound kinda crazy, like a Shostakovich piece.