More chamber music from Bax, who produced a goodly quantity of it. The first two cello works are from the post WW I period but do not have the tragic or harsh overtone of much of his music during this time. The piano has a strong part in most of Bax’s chamber music and is an equal partner of the cello here. The slow movement of the Cello Sonata is especially lovely.
Gordon Jacob’s name might be familiar to fans of the wonderful Hoffnung Festivals, as he contributed more than one humorous piece to them. His many works are diatonic and melodic, and that goes for his four-movement solo cello Divertimento. Lyrita’s sonics are always first-rate and this collection being in mono in no way down-rates it. However, for those of us especially sensitive to pitch variations, I would not recommend this set since in the Bax recordings from 1964 and 65, cellist Hooton is often painfully flat. She seems to have corrected this intonation problem by the Jacobs 1966 recordings.
– John Sunier
