The Fifth is perhaps the most characteristic of Bax's symphonies. For all the music's powerful range of emotion and its seemingly bewildering profusion of material and countless moments of bewitching beauty, its resourceful symphonic processes aren't easy to assimilate on first hearing. Lloyd-Jones's intelligent and purposeful direction pays handsome dividends, and a well-drilled RSNO responds with sensitivity and enthusiasm. Lloyd-Jones excels in the opening movement's tightly knit canvas, its epic ambition matched by a compelling sense of momentum, architectural grandeur and organic 'wholeness'. In the slow movement Lloyd-Jones paints a chillier, more troubled landscape than does Bryden Thomson (Chandos).
The finale's main Allegro sets out with gleeful dash and a fine rhythmic snap to its heels. Lloyd-Jones judges that tricky, crisisridden transition into the epilogue well, and the apotheosis is a hard-won, grudging victory.
The 1931 tone-poem The Tale the Pine TreesKnew makes an ideal bedfellow, foreshadowing as it does the bracingly 'northern' (to quote the composer) demeanour of the Fifth. Lloyd- Jones's comparatively extrovert treatment of the work's exultant final climax works perfectly convincingly within the context of his overall conception. Another eminently truthful, judiciously balanced sound picture from producer/ engineer Tim Handley.

Part of an excellent cycle of Bax symphonies. Start with this disc and I'll bet you'll want the rest.