Fand IncWessex Press

Fand’s final release of 2015 is an exciting and important one: the first edition of Sir Arnold Bax’s Scherzo for piano, edited and typeset by leading Bax authority Graham Parlett. A work of significant length and considerable technical demands, it represents a stimulating challenge to advanced pianists.

The precise origins of the Scherzo are unknown: completed in 1913, it was clearly marked as being the second movement of an otherwise unknown Piano Sonata; it may possibly be part of Bax’s lost Sonata in D minor. Bax orchestrated the score in 1917, in which form it received a couple of performances, and he also created a truncated arrangement for pianola roll, released in 1921, in which form the piece apparently enjoyed significant popularity. Some time later, in 1933, Bax produced a revised orchestral version under the title Symphonic Scherzo, and this version of the work was recorded by Chandos in 1986.

As for this original piano version of the piece, the first known performance – from the manuscript – took the form of a recording made by Malcolm Binns for a Pavilion Records LP in 1981. The score itself has never previously been published, and Fand is delighted to finally bring it to light.