Bridge - Early Chamber Music - Hyperion: CDA67426 - CD or download

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Bridge was a star student at the RCM, and his E minor String Quintet from 1901, one of four chamber offerings he wrote at that time, reveals a burgeoning talent. Cast in four movements and lasting... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Release Date: 2nd Feb 2004
Catalogue No: CDA67426
Label: Hyperion
Length: 66 minutes

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Bridge: String Sextet in E flat major

Work length27:05

$3.30

$4.50

The Raphael Ensemble

I. Allegro moderato

Track length10:54

$1.10

$1.50

II. Andante con moto – Allegro giusto – Tempo I

Track length9:23

$1.10

$1.50

III. Allegro ben moderato

Track length6:48

$1.10

$1.50

Bridge: Lament for two violas

Work length8:59

$1.10

$1.50

Louise Williams (viola), Asdis Valdimarsdottir (viola)
The Raphael Ensemble

Bridge: String Quintet in E minor

Work length30:04

$4.40

$6.00

The Raphael Ensemble

I. Allegro appassionato

Track length10:59

$1.10

$1.50

II. Andante ma non troppo

Track length6:31

$1.10

$1.50

III. Presto – L'istesso tempo – Presto da capo

Track length4:41

$1.10

$1.50

IV. Allegro molto

Track length7:53

$1.10

$1.50

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About

In 1901 the twenty-two-year-old Frank Bridge was engaged on a course of study at the Royal College of Music under the notoriously crusty Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, an experience the younger composer was to describe as being like imbibing water through a straw instead of glaxo and bovril. Nonetheless, the youthful String Quintet in E minor dating from this time betrays not the fug of the classroom, but rather the verve of Brahms, Dvorak and Elgar, and a distinctly Russian sense of energetic rhythmic bite alongside Bridges trademark effortless shifts from key to key. The String Sextet in E flat major, first performed in 1913 though originally sketched in 1906, is the most richly textured and expansive of all Bridges early chamber works. In three movements, the scale and character of this true masterpiece are established right from the first appearance of its soaring opening melody. A proficient violist in his own right, Bridge took to the stage in 1912 with Lionel Tertis to perform two viola duets of his own making. Never published, and their manuscripts lost, it eventually proved possible to revive one of them, the Lament, from an all-but complete sketch preserved in the Royal College of Music library. The result is some of the composers most personal music, Bridge skilfully spinning out from his two violas some of the most haunting and lyrical dialogues ever written.

Reviews

2010

Bridge was a star student at the RCM, and his E minor String Quintet from 1901, one of four chamber offerings he wrote at that time, reveals a burgeoning talent. Cast in four movements and lasting just over half an hour, it's an accomplished achievement. A scrupulous craft and pleasing sense of proportion attest to lessons well learnt under Stanford's tutelage, yet there's already a strongly emergent personality in pages such as the third-movement trio section. The finale, too, shows enviable skills, the poignant backward glance to the work's opening just before the close being particularly effective. It's preceded by a powerfully wrought Lament for two violas first performed by Lionel Tertis and the composer at London's Aeolian (now Wigmore) Hall in March 1912. Both works are worthy of resuscitation and both are superbly served here.
So too is the Sextet (1906-12) in an even more persuasive performance than that by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble on Chandos. The Raphael Ensemble produce a leaner, more subtly shaded sonority, allied to an extra re-creative spark and expressive urgency (witness the edgy anxiety they locate in the scherzo at the heart of the work). And the opening Allegro moderato is surveyed with due appreciation of its lyrical grace and elegant architecture; likewise, the finale combines pliancy and thrust.
A delightful anthology, highly recommended.

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