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No-bake
 No-bake Cookies: More Than 150 Fun, Easy & Delicious Recipes for Cookies, Bars, And Other Cool Treats Made Without Baking $16.95 This is a great book. I have tried several recipes and look forward to trying more. I tried a few recipes with young teens and had great results.  Bax: Piano Works Vol. 2 - Piano Sonatas Nos. 3 & 4; Water Music; Winter Waters $8.99 I am a committed admirer of Arnold Bax's orchestral music, but have never managed to really appreciate his chamber music. Hence, I approached this disc of his piano music with somewhat mixed expectations. Turns out that I was rather convinced - this is if not quite, then close to the Bax I know and love from the orchestral music, full of magic and color and power. The third sonata dates from 1926 (and thus between his second and third symphonies), and it is a most compelling work; a little flashy, perhaps, but energetically inventive and imaginative. It works its way exploratively from somewhat shapeless forms at the outset of the first movement, through a rather desolate slow movement with gleams of sunlight penetrating through the bleak textures, to an almost ecstatic finale. Ashely Wass turns out to be an excellent advocate of this music, with excellent phrasing and shaping of the music and with a large palette of colors. The performance of the fourth sonata is equally impressive. Here the textures are slightly more neo-classical, with a little less rummaging around and a cleaner structure, but still with some of the visionary energy familiar from Bax's finest works (although not ultimately as memorable) - and Wass has a sure grasp of that underlying power, thus providing an excellent interpretation, convincingly responding to the various nuances of texture and color throughout. This is, in the end, a rather powerful - almost exhausting - work (just wish the various themes and developements would linger a little longer in the mind afterwards), and the lighter (i.e. less ambitious, not necessarily more light-hearted) music following it makes for a welcome contrast. The Water Music is reflective and soothing, while the Winter Waters (a transcription from the ballet) is a darkly hued work with a strong sense of impending tragedy about it. The Country Tune is not as innocent as it sounds, but O Dame Get Up and Bake Your Pies is mere rumbustious fun. Throughout Wass's playing is quite impressive, and the sound quality is excellent. This disc is thus firmly recommended, at least to anyone who finds Bax's orchestral music appealing. |
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