Bridge: Allegro moderato - fragment of a symphony for string orchestra

“Each time I hear Bridge's Dance Rhapsody (1908) I wonder how such a rapturously tuneful work can be so shamefully neglected. ..the general fervour of the London Philharmonic's playing is thrilling throughout. Braithwaite is magically sensitive, too, in the vaguely Delian world of the Two Poems... The extreme contrasts of character contained in the Rebus overture (1940) are crisply delineated - and note how the LPO revel in the passages of glittering, Straussian opulence.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2007

“How, one wonders, can such a rapturously tuneful work as Bridge's Dance Rhapsody (1908) be so shamefully neglected: it deserves to be as popular as, say, Ravel's La valse! The intense songfulness of the strings' inner voices and the general fervour of the London Philharmonic's playing is thrilling throughout. In the more elusive (yet still alluring) Dance Poem (1913), Braithwaite unflinchingly explores the music's darker corners, finding a tragic vein that Hickox misses, though the newer account moves with admirable grace.
Braithwaite is magically sensitive, too, in the vaguely Delian world of the Two Poems (1916); 'The Open Air' sustains a fragile atmosphere of mystery and 'The Story of my Heart' is simultaneously passionate and mercurial. The extreme contrasts of character contained in the Rebus overture (1940) are crisply delineated – and note how the LPO revel in the passages of glittering, Straussian opulence. As for the Allegro moderato (a loose-limbed movement that Bridge left unfinished at his death in 1941), Hickox's taut, focused reading provides a semblance of symphonic cohesion, while Braithwaite elicits the stronger emotional charge. It's hard to imagine being without either recording.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Here's probably the most appealing and varied instalment in Richard Hickox's Frank Bridge series for Chandos. The disc's highlight is a superb performance of the 1930 'Concerto elegiaco' Oration, in which Hickox teams up with the gifted German cellist Alban Gerhardt. High drama and emotional candour are the keynotes to a riveting display. But there's no want of intimacy or compassion in the more contemplative passages, and the result is a trenchant interpretation that does justice to one of the towering masterpieces of British music.
The 1940 Rebus overture is as invigorating and impeccably crafted a concert-opener as any British composer has yet produced. The touching Lament (1915) is sensitively done, but Hickox and company seem less comfortable in Anthony Pople's completion of the patiently argued opening Allegro moderato from a projected symphony for strings upon which Bridge was working at the time of his death in 1941. Fortunately, there's a glowing account of A Prayer, Bridge's only composition for chorus and orchestra, a moving and often hauntingly beautiful setting from 1916-18 of words from The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis. Minor strictures notwithstanding, this is an essential purchase for Oration alone – and the music itself deserves the widest dissemination.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Listening to this comprehensive Chandos set, Bridge’s position as a shadowy transitional figure comes into sharper focus, the early Edwardiana yielding to a much more sharply defined mature style...Despite this being a six-disc compilation, there’s little filler. The lighter pieces charm. The performances are consistently inspired, and the recorded sound is refulgent.” The Arts Desk, 29th September 2012