Information
Composer: Arnold Bax; Frank Bridge
- Bax - Piano Quintet in G minor
- Bridge - Piano Quintet in D minor, H49a
Ashley Wass, piano
Tippett Quartet
John Mills, violin
Jeremy Isaac, violin
Julia O'Riordan, viola
Bozidar Vukotic, cello
Date: 2024
Label: Naxos
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This coupling of chamber works by Arnold Bax and Frank Bridge, both from early in the 20th century, makes an excellent addition to Naxos’s admirable series of rare British chamber music. Much the longer and more ambitious is the Bax, written in 1914-15, during the First World War. Nothing of that conflict is conveyed in this often exuberant music, for characteristically Bax’s ideas flow generously, maybe too much so for their own good. We know that he composed at the piano and much of this music reflects that, though the strong structure of all three movements is based on striking ideas, with a bold opening to the first movement leading persuasively to a second subject in a sort of hornpipe rhythm, and on to a more foursquare third section.
The central slow movement is based on a warm, direct melody, leading to the mysterious opening of the finale; this hints at the themes of the following Allegro, whose first theme is again in a sort of jaunty hornpipe rhythm, leading to a lyrical second subject, and on to what in a effect is a slow epilogue – a favourite Bax device in his symphonies. At 41 minutes the Quintet may be on the long side but it certainly holds the interest throughout, particularly in a fine performance such as this by the Tippett Quartet and Ashley Wass, who obviously relishes the virtuoso element in the piano writing.
The Bridge Quintet dates from rather earlier – 1904 – but Bridge radically revised it in 1912. A slow introduction leads to a first movement in conventional sonata form and on to a gently lyrical slow movement into which Bridge introduces a scherzo section that is rather Mendelssohnian in its lightness. The finale has a striking opening in an Allegro energico that lives up to that marking before a flamboyant close, one of the relatively few places in which the pianist can show off for, unlike Bax, Bridge was far less concerned with piano writing, being a string player himself. None the less, an attractive work well worth hearing in a performance as lively as this. First-rate sound too, recorded in St Silas Church, Chalk Farm, London.
-- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone
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Arnold Bax (8 November 1883 – 3 October 1953) was an English composer, poet, and author. His prolific output includes songs, choral music, chamber pieces, and solo piano works, but he is best known for his orchestral music. In addition to a series of symphonic poems, he wrote seven symphonies and was for a time widely regarded as the leading British symphonist. In his last years he found his music regarded as old-fashioned, and after his death it was generally neglected. From the 1960s onwards his music was gradually rediscovered, although little of it is regularly heard in the concert hall.
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Frank Bridge (26 February 1879 – 10 January 1941) was an English composer, violist and conductor. He studied at the Royal College of Music under Charles Villiers Stanford and played in a number of string quartets, before devoting himself to composition. Being a strong pacifist, Bridge was deeply disturbed by the First World War, and his works during the war and immediately afterwards appeared to search for spiritual consolation. As a teacher, Bridge privately taught Benjamin Britten, who later championed his teacher's music and paid homage to him in the Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (1937).
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Ashley Wass (born 26 March 1977) is a British pianist. Graduating from the Royal Academy of Music in 2001, he was winner of the 1997 London Piano Competition, a prizewinner at the 2000 Leeds Piano Competition, and a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist. Wass has performed at many of the world's finest concert halls including Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall and Vienna Konzerthaus. He has also performed with numerous leading ensembles and partners. Wass was Professor of Piano at the Royal College of Music from 2008 to 2018, and has been Director of Music at the Yehudi Menuhin School since 2020.
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The Tippett Quartet have performed at Wigmore Hall, BBC Proms, Kings Place, Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Bridgewater Hall, and have toured Europe, Canada and Mexico. Their broad and diverse repertoire highlights the Tippett Quartet’s unique versatility. They have an impressive catalogue of recordings, most recently being awarded Gramophone Record of the Month for their recording of Gorécki Quartets for Naxos. They were Ensemble in Residence at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University for 2012-13 and from 2015 they have been resident at Royal Holloway University, London.
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