Arnold Bax (1883-1953), Enchanted summer : for women's chorus, mixed chorus, and two soprano soloists (first edition 1911), words from Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound" (Act II Scene II).

Played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (violon solo : Barry Griffiths), the Brighton Festival Chorus and the sopranos Anne Williams-King et Lynore McWhirter, directed by Vernon Handley.

Description by John Palmer (Allmusic.com)

Bax dated his manuscript of Enchanted Summer "December, 1910," but it is possible that he began the piece in 1909 and orchestrated it in 1910. It seems the piece was conceived in the midst of Bax's affair with a Russian woman, whom he referred to as Loubya Korolenko. Bax's Enchanted Summer is a setting of Act II, scene ii of Percy Shelley's Prometheus Unbound. It was his longest orchestra composition yet and remained his largest work for chorus.
Enchanted Summer was first performed on March 13, 1912, in London's Queen's Hall as part of a series of concerts sponsored by Balfour Gardiner featuring new British music. Riorden published the piece in 1912 with a dedication to Frederick Corder. After a second performance in 1913, the piece remained unheard until 1977.

The work is scored for a large orchestra, including three flutes and one piccolo, two oboes and English horn, four clarinets, three bassoons and one contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, two harps, percussion, celesta, and strings. Two soprano soloists and a four-part mixed chorus make up the vocal forces. The composer's manipulation of these significant forces is arguably the most impressive aspect of Enchanted Summer and marked a significant advance in Bax's style. One weakness, perhaps, is non-idiomatic writing for the voices, especially in the choral parts.

The three sections of Enchanted Summer are continuous, and the chorus appears only in the final section. Bax prefaces the score with Shelley's introduction to the scene: "A forest intermingled with rocks and caverns...Asia and Panthea pass into it. Two young Fauns are sitting on a rock, listening." From the beginning of the piece, Bax evokes this setting with a very quiet dynamic level in the muted strings and whispering arpeggios for the first harp. This opening anticipates Bax's later tone poem, Tintagel, of 1917 - 1919. The first part of Enchanted Summer goes on to describe how the wood spirits sing softly as they are entranced by the two Nereids drifting by. Through contrasts Bax tries to illustrate musically the juxtaposition of light and shadow on the forest floor.

As Bax points out in his own notes on Enchanted Summer, the second part is more impassioned than the first. This is due, in large part, to the rich harmonic palette from which Bax draws, and to his effective melodic imitation of nightingales. A sense of yearning and searching in a mood of restlessness results from the composer's frequent use of diminished seventh chords, notably at the text "There the voluptuous nightingales..."

In the third section, the chorus finally enters. Bax's comments point out that "the composer has endeavored to combine the impressionistic manner with a melodic scheme freer in scope than that commonly used in choral writing." Again chromatic harmonies abound as the chorus sings of the warmth of the sun and the power of spring. Finally, the two soprano soloists enter, singing the parts of the two Fauns, who have watched in wonder at what they have seen and heard.

Original audio: [ Ссылка ]
Score: [ Ссылка ]_(Bax%2C_Arnold)
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I DO NOT own the AUDIO neither the SCORE. I don't earn anything by doing this video and it has been done only for didactical purposes. Copyrights go to all the artists

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