From Amazon.co.uk
Here's an irresistible opportunity to acquaint yourself with one of the most loveable of all British symphonies in a finely engineered performance of infectious dedication and impressive power. Bax completed the Third of his seven symphonies in early 1929. It's one of his very best scores, crammed full of bewitchingly beautiful melody (nowhere more so than in the wonderfully serene epilogue with which the work closes) and thrillingly evocative of the rugged coastline and mountains in and around Morar (Bax's Scottish winter retreat). David Lloyd-Jones's bright-eyed interpretation is, on balance, the most satisfyingly lucid since Sir John Barbirolli's wartime premier recording with the Hallè. Moreover, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra rise to the challenge with unstinting fervour and impressive polish. For a fill-up we get a enjoyably robust, at times boisterous reading of the earlier, toothsome tone-poem
The Happy Forest, its gorgeous central portion lacking just a fraction in rapt wonderment. Overall, though, yet another British music winner from Naxos, and an absolute must at the price.
--Andrew Achenbach
