Arnold Bax, the composer, was a student of Tobias Matthay for piano and Frederick Corder for composition at the Royal Academy of Music.
Composer Biography
Bax was deeply influenced by Irish landscape, music, and literature, developing a literary alter ego 'Dermot O'Byrne' and reflecting the 1916 Easter Rising in his scores.
Compositional Technique
Bax's four large-scale Piano Sonatas form the core of his piano music, with one unnumbered sonata later orchestrated to become his First Symphony.
Composer Biography
Bax, a natural pianist, occasionally stepped in for established pianists, even accompanying Debussy and Schoenberg songs in their presence.
Performer Biography
Ashley Wass, the pianist on this album, was the first British pianist to win the top prize at the World Piano Competition in 1997.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Bax's early music likely originated from piano improvisation, and his harmonies and coloristic textures would have sounded strikingly modern at the time.
Composer Biography
Bax often played through recent orchestral scores at the piano, sometimes as a duet with his friend, the pianist Arthur Alexander, to absorb new European sounds.
