For listeners who can't get enough of the music of the self-described "brazen Romantic" Arnold Bax (1883-1953), this disc of three very little-known choral-orchestral works will be a rare treat. One is from early in the composer's career -- Fatherland (1907), that sets a Finnish poem by Johan Ludvig Runeberg -- one is perhaps the high point of his pre-war career -- Enchanted Summer (1910) setting a portion of Percy Bysshe Shelley's Prometheus Unbound -- and one is from his early maturity -- Walsinghame (1926) setting Walter Raleigh's poem of the same name. All three works feature Bax's patented yearning melodies, sumptuous harmonies, opulent orchestrations, impetuous rhythms, and amorphous forms, plus his infrequently heard talent for writing effectively for chorus. And all three works feature the skilled conducting of
Vernon Handley, one of England's most sympathetic Bax advocates, the polished playing of the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, one of London's most colorful orchestras, and
Laszlo Heltay's
Brighton Festival Chorus, one of Britain's most ardent choirs. Although vocal soloists have relatively little to do in all three works -- the soprano soloists in Enchanted Summer don't enter until the half-hour work is nearly done -- they all acquit themselves honorably, with tenor
Martyn Hill's big-hearted singing in Fatherland perhaps being the standout performance. Chandos' sound is a bit too congested in the scores' fuller passages, but nevertheless appropriately lush and colorful the rest of the time.