Wass:Roscoe - BAX, Arnold: 2 Piano Music

Although best known for his symphonic poems and symphonies, Bax also wrote prolifically for the piano, his instrument from the first. The two-piano music heard on this recording was written mostly in the late 1920s for the husband and wife piano duet team of Ethel Bartlett and Rae Robertson. It encompasses captivating miniatures such as 'The Poisoned Fountain', whose repeated piano figuration is evocative of flowing water, the impressionistic 'Moy Mell (An Irish Tone-Poem)' and 'Hardanger', which emulates the style of Grieg's folk-style piano music. The large-scale 'Sonata for Two Pianos' includes a slow movement which is formally similar to some of the orchestral tone poems, and evokes an ancient Celtic world in a striking parallel with Bax's orchestral 'The Garden of Fand'.