Bax - Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 & 2

2010

“Not only does this gifted young pianist possess a rock-solid technique and striking keyboard finesse, his penetrating accounts of both these large-scale, single-movement sonatas make you sit up and listen. So it is that in the bracing First Sonata (written in 1910 during Bax's sojourn in Russia and Ukraine) Ashley Wass finds the balance between epic and introspective. More than that, he brings out the music's brazen Slavic fervour with its echoes of Scriabin and Rachmaninov (the coda's pealing bells toll with magnificent cumulative impact). He paces its turbulent successor of 1919 with cogency and concentration. Even more than the magisterial John McCabe, Wass takes us on a genuine voyage of discovery: the control, sense of colour and dynamic range are remarkable, and his tone never hardens under pressure.
Of the four couplings, Dream in Exile stands out.
The sound throughout is vividly truthful.”