Here's yet another valuable reissue from Lyrita's vaults. Norman Del Mar's pioneering 1966 account of Bax's Sixth Symphony has held up extremely well. Occupying an interpretative middle ground between the thrilling thrust and narrative coherence of Vernon Handley's muchpraised recording (part of his Gramophone Award-winning cycle – see page 115) and the colourfully expressive languor of Bryden Thomson's, Del Mar may be the most satisfying of the lot. Like Handley, Del Mar makes sense of the symphony's unusual structure (the finale is a fierce scherzo positioned between a dark introduction and elegiac epilogue) while allowing one to savour more of the details. The result remains the most emotionally potent on disc.
Note, for instance, how warmly the New Philharmonia strings sing their opening cantilena at the beginning of the slow movement. And although he is not as graceful as Handley, Del Mar brings far more character and incident to the finale's scherzo section.
The CD is rounded out with shorter works performed by Handley and the RPO, including a succinctly passionate, though somewhat roughedged, reading of the atmospheric Irish Landscape (1913). The conductor's recording of the Rogue'sComedy Overture (1936), on the above-mentioned Chandos set, is slightly more frisky than this one – but only slightly. And while neither the Overture toAdventure (1936) nor the Overture: Work in Progress (1943) is top-drawer Bax, both are attractively vivacious and dispatched with élan.

Like Handley, Del Mar makes sense of the symphony's unusual structure (the finale is a fierce scherzo positioned between a dark introduction and elegiac epilogue) while allowing one to savour more of the details. The result remains the most emotionally potent on disc. Note, for instance, how warmly the New Philharmonic strings sing their opening cantilena at the beginning of the slow movement. And although it is not as graceful as Handley, Del Mar brings far more character and incident to the finale's scherzo section.