Customer Reviews

Bliss: Cello Concerto; Music for Strings

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I just about remember Sir Arthur alive when I was a kid in the 1960's. He seemed a just like like the old grandpop on the Werthers TV commercial, white haired, smiling, moustachio'd and genteel. Born in 1891, he was asociated with Howells and Holbrooke. He was a late developer but his early works are not mere juvenilia as the 'Two Studies' for orchestra on this CD show. The brevity in respect to time is transcended by the string emotional content of the first study, an adagio. With a flourish of tone colour that gives more than a nod in the direct of his revered Ravel, Bliss depicts a pastoral scene in a way that English composers have always made their own, with meditative strings, woodwind melody and a gentle harmonic journey that ends up in calm repose. The faster movement is more generic but nonetheless reveals a sure touch with the orchestra at a higher speed with greater dynamics. The Music for Strings is generally acknowledged to be Bliss' best work, like Elgar's Introduction and Allegro is thought by many to be his greatest work. Bliss is never sentimental in his writing and if anything can thought of as a 'toughie' with vigorous rhythms and crunchy harmonies with plenty of bite, nevertheless staying within the bounds of tonality. He was a great admirer of Darius Milhaud and in this work we can hear his ironic side as well as a more pensive nature. The Cello Concerto is a late work (1963)in response to a commission from Rostropovich and many feel that Bliss had in mind his long dead brother Howard who had been killled in WWI and who was a master cellist in his own right. There is a great deal of tender and reflective writing here although the piece is notoriously difficult for soloists to perform for very little apparent glory. Lloyd Jones, the English Northern Philharmonia and soloist Tim Hugh work very well together and it is very difficult to imagine a better performance than this one. Naxos are presently doing a special set of Bliss recordings which is very welcome as far as I am concerned for as each CD comes available I intend to buy it immediately! This is great value at any price but sensational for over an hour of music of this quality and rarity.

Following on the heels of the glorious issue of the Colour symphony and Adam Zero, this disc is almost as riveting. The Cello concerto receives a superb performance from Tim Hugh - beautifully and eloquently phrased, and with the appropriate balance of urgency and taste - and the orchestral part is equally sensitively and vibrantly led by Lloyd-Jones. The work is relatively late (first performed in 1970), and a splendid and genuinely inspired work, structurally cogent and wonderfully crafted and sporting some truly memorable thematic material. It is also finely scored - a model of transparency and clarity, really.

The Music for Strings is one of Bliss's unquestionable masterpieces; an exhilarating, immaculately crafted score of tremendous power, color and flair. Here, however, the English Northern Philharmonia sounds a tad undernourished; still, Lloyd-Jones's judgment is never in doubt, and the performance is superbly paced, and even though it doesn't quite pip the competitors to the post this is still a formidable accomplishment. The Two Studies are the composer's first orchestral works, long believed lost, and they make a very welcome appearance here. The first is delicately serene and the second lively and good-humored (in fact, they are really nos. 2 and 3 - no.1, not featured here, eventually turned into the Melee fantastique featured on another Naxos release).

To sum up, this is another indispensable release of the music of Arthur Bliss from Lloyd-Jones, the English Northern Philharmonia, and Naxos, even though they don't have the last word on the Music for Strings. Sound quality is superb, however, and the booklet notes engaging and perceptive. Strongly recommended overall, and urgently so for the cello concerto and the two studies.

All three works on this disk are great and thouroughly enjoyable listening. As was said by the previous reviewer, Bliss' music for string's is a masterpiece of its time and is really some of the best string writing of the twentieth century.

The late Cello Concerto is a superb work, worthy of far more performances than it gets. The outer movements are angular and powerful, stunningly orchestrated with the cello singing beautifully above the accompaniment. The central larghetto is a moving yet not sentimental elegy for cello and orchestra. Tim Hugh gives a superb account - poised and elegant, relishing the full beauty of Bliss' writing. Raphael Wllfisch's attempt sounds roughly hewn and unpolished in comparison, and Robert Cohen's sound's sloppy and messy. This is one of Bliss' finest works.

The two studies are delightful works, especially the first which is a genuinly moving pastoral and an amazing success for a first orchestral work.

If you like English music then you will like this CD. If you liked this disk and are sick (like me) of the overplayed Elgar Concerto, then I recommend other CD's by the superb Tim Hugh: his recordings of the Finzi and Walton concerti, which both remain the greatest accounts of each on disk.