By Richard R. Adams, Chairman of the Sir Arnold Bax Society

The very first time I accessed the internet was in the summer of 1995 while I was visiting a friend in Boston. Her parents had a computer, and her father gave me a brief demonstration before inviting me to try my first internet search. I typed in “Sir Arnold Bax,” curious to see if anything would come up—and not surprised when nothing did. I then searched for “Ralph Vaughan Williams” and a very fine, early website appeared. Later, I discovered pages devoted to Elgar, Walton, and even Delius—but no Bax.

In early 1996, I bought my first computer. Once I understood the basics of building websites, I went to work on creating something devoted to Sir Arnold Bax. The initial pages were simple—mostly lists of recommended recordings with some background information about the works and the performers. The site was admittedly crude, but it attracted the attention of several notable Baxians, including writers Robert Barnett, Christopher Webber, and the late Ian Lace. Rob Barnett, in particular, was very supportive, providing numerous articles that had originally appeared in the first Bax Society newsletters. Many of these were written by Graham Parlett and Lewis Foreman, and Rob was happy for them to find a new home on the internet.

Having a website gave me my first opportunities to interview leading artists I greatly admired like David Lloyd-Jones, who at that time was recording the Bax symphonies for Naxos, and the great Bax scholar, Graham Parlett. I had come across Graham’s name as a writer of several articles and CD liner notes, and his work always impressed me. We arranged to meet at his office at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Over lunch, I recorded an engaging conversation that I thought had been very informative.  Graham—modest as ever—later asked that I not publish it because he felt uncomfortable drawing attention to himself. While I was disappointed, I over time grew very close to Graham and he went on to become a frequent contributor to the site, elevating its quality significantly.

As I mentioned, Ian Lace and Rob Barnett were early contributors, and Chris Webber became a regular contributor who has remained with the site throughout its 29-year history. Over those years, the site has been upgraded and redesigned multiple times. It saw intense activity around the 50th anniversary of Bax’s death, when Vernon Handley’s complete set of the symphonies was released. One of my great life experiences was interviewing Tod several times—just before and then again during the recording of that series. We developed a close friendship, and I was fortunate to attend several of his BBC Philharmonic recording sessions of Bax’s music.

Sadly, after Tod’s death in 2008, interest in Bax’s music began to wane again. While there were still some excellent recordings issued by Dutton, Naxos, and Chandos, even those had largely ceased by around 2015 and consequently the website went through a period of inactivity.

Fortunately, this decline did not affect several of Bax’s contemporaries. Over the past decade new recordings of the music by Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Walton, Tippett, Britten, and even Havergal Brian proliferated. Conductors like Andrew Manze, Martyn Brabbins, Sir Edward Gardner, and Sir Mark Elder have released multiple editions of Britain’s better-known symphonic cycles, but for us Baxians, these years have been frustrating. Few new recordings have emerged (with no new recordings of the symphonies being issued since 2003), and Bax’s music is virtually absent from the Proms or on the schedules of the major British orchestras, except for the occasional performance of Tintagel.  (Another notable exception was a performance of the Bax Second Symphony by the Royal Philharmonic conducted by Andrew Litton during the 2011 proms season). 

While I’m immensely grateful that the Bax website has connected me with so many musicians and writers I admire, I’ve been aware of its limitations. It generates no revenue with which to support Bax-related initiatives and activities.  Consequently, I’ve been envisioning an Arnold Bax Society for many years, but the necessary resources and collaborators have never been available, until now, that is.

The opportunity came last year when composer John Pickard connected me with one of his students to complete a major Bax score restoration project begun by the late Graham Parlett. Graham had started producing a new edition of Bax’s quasi-piano concerto Symphonic Variations, which was never published during Bax’s lifetime and survived only in a badly damaged manuscript that performers have described as illegible. Swiss pianist Urs Buchmann had commissioned Graham to prepare a new score, and Graham had begun entering the music into Sibelius before his illness and tragic passing.

Urs and I agreed the project needed to continue, and John Pickard recommended his student, George Owen—a young composer, editor, and publisher who had assisted John with editing several of his scores. I connected Urs and George, and they negotiated a contract to resume the project. The new edition of Symphonic Variations was completed this year, with performances tentatively scheduled for next year.

Meanwhile, Bax’s music had recently entered the public domain, allowing for the legal production of new editions previously under copyright by Warner Chappell. John Pickard mentioned that conductor John Wilson was seeking a proper score of Spring Fire and that inspired us to turn our attentions to it next, and its completion was timed just in time for Wilson’s 2024 studio recording with the BBC Philharmonic (yet to be broadcast on BBC Radio 3).  George accomplished the seemingly impossible: he delivered a beautiful new edition of Bax’s magnificent score that was praised by Wilson and the orchestral players.

With these new scores in hand, George and I began discussing how to finance more score reconstructions and support performances of Bax’s music. This led to our serious consideration of forming a new Arnold Bax Society and last year we started putting it all together.  Our first Trustees meeting took place in July 2024 and from the outset, it was clear that the Society would do more than just commission and create new Bax scores.  We have been discussing the possibility of supporting performances, organizing symposiums, and we launched a new website to expand on the original Bax site—now with an even greater team of contributors.  We are planning a bi-annual newsletter that will be sent to members, featuring news, interviews, reviews, and exclusive content not found on the Society’s website. 

Membership is open to all who love Bax’s music, with a minimum fee of just £3 per month (free for students). The Society also intends to establish “Affiliate Memberships” for music groups and individuals who frequently perform Bax’s music.   The Society will do all it can to promote their activities through our newsletter and social media.

Bax has long stood just outside the pantheon of composers favored by concert programmers and record labels. Though he was once considered one of the most important composers of his generation, a backlash followed his death, and his reputation has never fully recovered. Still, it is thanks to the dedication of passionate musicians and music lovers that keeps his music alive. We believe Bax deserves better: to be heard more widely—both in recording, online and in live settings.

So now is the time to shift our focus from the Bax Website to the Sir Arnold Bax Society. We know many music lovers share our passion and are ready to help champion his legacy. The original website will remain as an archive for older material, although much of it has already been migrated to the Society’s site. But going forward, all new content will be published exclusively through the Society’s site and available initially to members only.

Please follow this link to join the Society today: sirarnoldbaxsociety.com
If you wish to hear more Bax in concert or have available more recordings and publications of his work, we invite you to help us make that happen.  We look forward to having you on our team.

Richard R. Adams
Chairman of the Sir Arnold Bax Society