Frank Bridge - Phantasy Piano Quartet; Sonatas (Nash Ensemble)

Information

Composer: Frank Bridge

1. Phantasy Piano Quartet in F sharp minor
2. Cello Sonata: 1. Allegro ben moderato
3. Cello Sonata: 2. Adagio ma non troppo – Molto allegro e agitato – Adagio ma non troppo – Allegro moderato
4. An Irish Melody "The Londonderry Air"
5. Cherry Ripe
6. Sally in our alley
7. Sir Roger de Coverley
8. Violin Sonata

Nash Ensemble

    Marianne Thorsen, violin

    Laura Samuel, violin

    Lawrence Power, viola

    Paul Watkins, cello

    Ian Brown, piano

Date: 2013

Label: Hyperion

https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68003

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Review

Frank Bridge frequently gets introduced as Britten’s teacher. This has gone on for too long: Bridge was an important British composer in his own right, as these recordings, and many more, now demonstrate (see my feature on Gramophone’s website: gramophone.co.uk/features/focus/frank-bridge-–-the-unsung-british-modernist). Bridge began within the inherited Romantic tradition well before the First World War but then, under the impact of the war, which he detested, his style toughened and became more dissonant, disconcerting people in the 1920s. The Phantasy Piano Quartet is a mellifluous example of the pre-war style; the Cello Sonata, Bridge’s most popular chamber work, came during the war; and by 1932, in the Violin Sonata, the later style was fully established. The dominant mood of the earlier works is an elegiac nostalgia close to some of Elgar – during the war it became anger. Throughout, there’s an identifiable melodic flow, initially comparable to Fauré, and then Bridge’s characteristic harmonic idiom developed from the techniques of Scriabin and early Berg. I’ve admired Lynex and Wells in their complete Bridge cello-and-piano works (Somm, 11/01) and now Paul Watkins delivers lovely, fluent melodic lines in the Cello Sonata. Bridge’s arrangements are attractive but the rarity here is the Violin Sonata, commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, who did so much to support Bridge when he was cruelly neglected at home. Its stop-start continuity is not easy to handle but it comes across with impassioned climaxes from Marianne Thorsen and Ian Brown. There are authoritative notes from Paul Hindmarsh, and the Hyperion recorded quality is a dream.

-- Peter Dickinson, Gramophone

More reviews:
https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2015/Mar/Bridge_chamber_CDA68003.htm

https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/chamber/bridge-phantasy-piano-quartet-cello-sonata

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/sep/26/bridge-piano-quartet-cello-violin-review

https://www.allmusic.com/album/bridge-phantasy-piano-quartet-cello-sonata-violin-sonata-folk-tunes-for-string-quartet-mw0002579461

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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).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Bridge

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The Nash Ensemble of London is an English chamber ensemble. It was founded by Artistic Director Amelia Freedman and Rodney Slatford in 1964, while they were students at the Royal Academy of Music, and was named after the Nash Terraces around the academy. The Ensemble has won awards from the Edinburgh Festival Critics and the Royal Philharmonic Society, as well as a 2002 Gramophone Award for contemporary music. In addition to their classical repertoire, the Ensemble performs works by numerous contemporary composers, and has given premier performances of more than 200 works.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_Ensemble

http://nashensemble.org.uk/

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