There is
a danger that listeners may down-rate the Saga
Fragment simply because it
was not a new work, but a reheated piece ‘dished up’ from Bax’s catalogue of
chamber music. In fact, they could make no greater error of judgement. As Brian
Wilson writing on MusicWeb International suggests, ‘it sounds anything but cobbled
together.’
The work
was a result of a request by Harriet Cohen for a short ‘concerted’ piece for
her forthcoming American tour in 1933. Bax orchestrated the [Piano] Quartet in
One Movement (GP255) which had been written in 1922 at around the same time as
he was composing his First Symphony. It was a time when the composer was
dismayed by the developing civil war in his beloved Eire.
Lewis
Foreman has noted that the original piano part has been rearranged a little
with some octave doubling added. The work was orchestrated for relatively small
forces - piano solo, trumpet, percussion and strings. The Saga Fragment’s first performance was at the Queen’s
Hall with Constant Lambert on the rostrum.
The mood
of the music is quite severe. Andrew Burn in the liner notes of recently
released Naxos CD quotes Cohen writing in her autobiography that this is ‘a
savage little work much admired by Bartok.’ Bax himself is reputed to have said
that Saga Fragment was ‘a rather tough pill.’
Once
again Lewis Foreman well sums up the mood of this piece – ‘The composer appears
torn between grim contemporary realities and an earlier, more romantic
existence.’
Certainly,
the piece opens with an aggressive, bristly staccato on the strings, and the
piano, when it enters, strikes a sinister note. However this belligerence is
not the full story. The composer is almost schizophrenic in his approach to the
musical language with the middle section being wistful, reflective and possibly
even optimistic in its mood. There is a ‘bardic’ magic in some of the quieter
moments in this piece that looks towards the re-creation of an ideal world-
most likely in Eire. At bottom, it is the violence pitted against the romance
that makes or breaks this piece.
This work
is currently available on Chandos and Naxos. Both
versions are essential listening to all Bax enthusiasts.
With
thanks to MusicWeb International where the substance of this text first
appeared.
No comments:
Post a Comment