Ashley Wass - BRIDGE: Piano Music, Vol. 1 [CD]

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Frank Bridge (1879-1941)Piano Music, Vol. 1 Frank Bridge studiedviolin and composition at the Royal College of Music where he was a pupil of Stanfordfrom 1899 to 1903. Apart from composition his career embraced performance (hewas the violist of several quartets, most notably the English String Quartet),conducting (he frequently deputised for Sir Henry Wood), and teaching, BenjaminBritten being his most renowned pupil. No other British composer of the firsthalf of the twentieth century reveals such a stylistic journey in his music.His early works, like the First String Quartet (1906), the PhantasyPiano Trio (1907), and the orchestral suite The Sea (1910-11),follow in the late-Romantic tradition bearing a kinship with Brahms and Faure;subsequently, in the orchestral tone poem Summer (1914), Bridge comesclose to the orbit of Delius. After the First World War, however, his music becameintense and chromatic as in the Scriabinesque Piano Sonata (1921-4). Theradical language of the sonata was pursued in his chamber works of the 1920s, sothat in the Third String Quartet (1926) Bridge rubs shoulders with theearly works of the Second Viennese School. Also to this decade belong twoorchestral masterpieces, Enter Spring (1927), and Oration forcello and orchestra (1930). These and later works, for instance, Phantasm forpiano and orchestra (1931), and the overture Rebus (1940) languished,finding little favour either with public or critics, and despite Britten's advocacy,it was not until the 1970s that Bridge's remarkable legacy began to receive theattention it deserved.Bridge was also a fine pianist, and his contribution to soloworks for the instrument date primarily from the first two decades of hiscareer from 1900 onwards. Up to the First World War much of it was composed in responseto the demand for salon music, which was played by the many skilled amateurmusicians of that time, as well as for professional pianists to include in recitals.The evocative titles chosen for pieces were often at the behest of publishersas a sales ploy. Overall Bridge's pieces are marked by his superb craftsmanshipand apart from Faure, Ravel and Debussy influence them too. Occasionally theyare related to larger works that were occupying the composer at the same time. Duringthe war years Bridge mainly composed smaller works, particularly for piano, aswell as songs, and this seems to be due, in part, to the anguish he felt at thedeath and destruction wrought by the conflict. (It is known that he was sodistressed by the war that he would wander the streets by himself at night,mulling over the horrors.) It was as if he could not muster the necessaryconcentration to work on extended pieces, as witnessed by the four-yeargestation period of the Cello Sonata (1913-17). In addition his responseto the war also seems to have triggered a stylistic crisis in his music, and aneed to develop a more radical harmonic voice to express himself. The firstmajor manifestation of this new style was

The Princess: Allegretto Con Moto

The Ogre: Allegro Deciso

The Spell: Adagio E Sostenuto

The Prince: Allegro Giocoso

Dusk: Molto Moderato

The Dew Fairy: Allegretto Moderato E Rubato

The Midnight Tide: Molto Lento

Allegretto Con Moto

Tempo Di Valse

Allegretto Ben Moderato

Heart's Ease: Andante Tranquillo-Lento

Dainty Rogue: Molto Allegro E Vivo

The Hedgerow: Allegretto Moderato

Columbine: Poco Lento-Tempo Di Valse

Minuet: Tempo Di Minuetto

Romance: Andante Molto Moderato

Retrospect: Adagio Ma Non Troppo

Through The Eaves: Allegro Moderato E Rubato

Solitude: Poco Adagio E Molto Espressivo

Ecstasy: Lento E Sostenuto-Allegro Con Moto

Sunset: Adagio E Sostenuto