Frank Bridge

[kyjo]

Then go to Oraion, his even better cello "concerto".

+1 Also, be sure to check out Enter Spring, The Sea and There grows a willow aslant a brook. All are top-drawer Bridge.

[vandermolen]

+1 Also, be sure to check out Enter Spring, The Sea and There grows a willow aslant a brook. All are top-drawer Bridge.

Absolutely agree.

[Madiel]

Then go to Oraion, his even better cello "concerto".

Already heard it. I know multiple people consider it Bridge's best work but I didn't. I did like it, but found it didn't engage me as much as several others.

[Madiel]

Well, I've finally reached the end of the Hickox set, with the Allegro Moderato (aka a bit of an unfinished symphony).

Only took me 13 months...

I'll leave it a little while, but then I want to go back and listen to the pieces in the order they're presented, rather than the chronological tack I decided to take this time.  It will be interested to see how I respond to the programming of each CD.

[kyjo]

.....and what is your verdict on the music?

[Madiel]

...why is it that when I post on this particular thread, people never read anything else I ever posted on this thread?

[kyjo]

...why is it that when I post on this particular thread, people never read anything else I ever posted on this thread?

My apologies!

[Karl Henning]

Cross-post

Oration is brilliant!

[vandermolen]

I find the epilogue to Oration to be very moving, apparently it was an afterthought. I always think of a star shining over a blasted First World War battlefield.

[Madiel]

I've just been listening to the 3 Idylls for string quartet. Very nice... I have a feeling I'd enjoy Bridge as a chamber music composer.

Any particular recommendations? I know Hyperion has recorded some of the works, but it actually looks as if it's Naxos that has put the most effort into this catalogue. There are discs covering the numbered string quartets, other works for string quartet, and the piano trios.

[Karl Henning]

I find the epilogue to Oration to be very moving, apparently it was an afterthought. I always think of a star shining over a blasted First World War battlefield.

Lovely!

I've listened to all the works before, but when I bought the 6-volume set I listened to the works in chronological order rather than disc order (and intermixed with all the other things I bought at the same time).

Enter Spring is the only post-War work on volume 1, and it does show. As performed here it has real colour and verve, and a grand sweep.

I'm not sure any of the other pieces are on the same level, but they're by no means bad and worth hearing. Isabella is focused on creating a rather sweetly romantic atmosphere (although there's a bit of drama at the halfway mark), and the first of the 2 shorter Poems is deliberately all a gentle haze with distant horn calls. The second Poem is a bright little scherzo. Mid of the Night is Bridge's first symphonic poem and also the longest (26 minutes here, versus 18 for Enter Spring and Isabella). For something that had to wait 96 years between performances, it's fairly entertaining even if it is undoubtedly longer than it needed to be.

The recording is, to my ears, consistently top-notch. The richness and colour of Bridge's scoring comes across very well I think.

Garn, I have got Enter Spring on the Naxos Judd/EnnZedd disc, but I do not know that I've actually listened to it.

I'm curious about Phantasm now, too . . . .

[vandermolen]

Lovely!

Garn, I have got Enter Spring on the Naxos Judd/EnnZedd disc, but I do not know that I've actually listened to it.

I'm curious about Phantasm now, too . . . .

You'll enjoy Phantasm Karl. I think that everything that Bridge wrote is worth hearing. He is a most underrated composer. Vaughan Williams was negative about some of Bridge's music but in my opinion he was wrong. Phantasm, like much else of Bridge is a powerful and searching piece.

[Karl Henning]

You'll enjoy Phantasm Karl. I think that everything that Bridge wrote is worth hearing. He is a most underrated composer. Vaughan Williams was negative about some of Bridge's music but in my opinion he was wrong. Phantasm, like much else of Bridge is a powerful and searching piece.

(my emphasis) And, well, that's all right:  you must allow an artist his likes and dislikes, because in his own soul, that is part of how his own art is shaped.  You're right, that that negativity is not dogma.

[Karl Henning]

Do you, orfeo or Jeffrey, have a preferred account of Phantasm?  No urgency, I am still in the "mulling" stage . . . and I need to lay hands on my CD of Enter Spring soon . . . .

[Madiel]

I only have the Hickox set. But Phantasm was my personal favourite thing from that whole set, if that's any guide.

[vandermolen]

Do you, orfeo or Jeffrey, have a preferred account of Phantasm?  No urgency, I am still in the "mulling" stage . . . and I need to lay hands on my CD of Enter Spring soon . . . .

Karl (by the way, do you know that you are the only person attached to this forum whose name i always write in bold? (Because you always write my name in bold - I hope that you are appreciating this Karl)

Now, back to Bridge, my favourite version is below (if I can get the picture to appear). This is the version on Lyrita but I have a bias here as it also contains my favourite version of 'Oration' which I consider an out-and-out masterpiece it is also my old LP version of Phantasm and I have not done a proper comparison with other performances. Still, it is a great CD and although Lyrita CDs can be expensive online I see that it is under £5.00 second-hand on UK Amazon.
[asin]B000U9XG34[/asin]

[Karl Henning]

Cheers, Jeffrey & orfeo!

[vandermolen]

Cheers, Jeffrey & orfeo!

A pleasure Karl,
I am listening to the Lyrita CD now and Peter Wallfish gives an excellent performance with fine, urgent accompaniment from Nicholas Braithwaite and the LPO. Recording is excellent too. The CD below is also excellent and has different accompanying pieces, both of which I admire very much but the Lyrita CD would be my top recommendation:
[asin]B001SH0UMC[/asin]
As far as Phantasm goes I don't think that you will go wrong with any of the three versions available and I have no doubt that Orfeo is right about the Chandos recording which I am less familiar with.

[Karl Henning]

I certainly enjoyed the samples on this one:

[asin]B000U9XG34[/asin]

I was thinking of just downloading Phantasm, since I already have two recordings of Oration . . . but those samples sounded so tasty, too, probably I'll snaffle up the whole album.

[Turbot nouveaux]

I'm interested that no-one has really championed Bridge's very fine string quartets here (though they have been mentioned en passant). There are five - an early "Phantasie Quartet" 1905) and 4 numbered works. 1 and 2 show influences by Tchaikovsky, Faure and Debussy, whilst 3 and 4, from the 20s and 30s respectively, are more akin to the work of the composers of the 2nd Viennese school, especially Berg. I think that Nos. 2 and 4 are especially fine.

There are also some other rewarding but slighter pieces for sting quartet such as the "Novelletten" (1904) and "Three Idylls" (1906), and some gorgeous and ingenious English folk song arrangements for string quartet besides.

My go to recordings for these works are three discs on Naxos by the (English) Maggini Quartet.