Frank Bridge: The Sea / Summer / Cherry Ripe / Enter Spring / Lament [Import]

Frank Bridge (Composer), Charles Groves (Conductor), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
• Conductor: Charles Groves
• Composer: Frank Bridge
• Audio CD (November 5, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: EMI
• ASIN: B00000C2J6
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #384,074 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. The Sea-Suite For Orchestra: 1. Seascape (Allegro ben moderato)

2. The Sea-Suite For Orchestra: 2. Sea-foam (Allegro vivo)

3. The Sea-Suite For Orchestra: 3. Moonlight (Adagio ma non troppo)

4. The Sea-Suite For Orchestra: 4. Storm (Allegro energico)

5. Summer: Tone Poem

6. Cherry Ripe

7. Enter Spring: Rhapsody

8. Lament

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enter Spring is one of the greatest 20th C Orchestral works, January 15, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Goring on Thames, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Frank Bridge: The Sea / Summer / Cherry Ripe / Enter Spring / Lament (Audio CD)

While most people buying this will get it for an English evocation of Debussy's La Mer, the important work is without a doubt the symphonic poem Enter Spring. Put a 20th Century English composer and a pastoral subject together and many people will imagine cows chewing the cud, looking over a farm gate. This music will dispel that image. Frank Bridge's Enter Spring arrives with a crash and a wallop and is here to stay. This is mature music unlike anything else in the repertoire. Moments of violence announcing the arrival of Spring, pushing Winter into the past with the force of Mother Nature rub shoulders with poetic moments that send a shiver down the spine. If the sound of Bridge's birdsong (oboe and flute) after the initial disruption doesn't bring a tear to your eye and a quiver to your backbone, then you are surely cold blooded!

Althogh this analogue recording dates from the 1970's, it surpasses any subsequent recordings, particularly the Pearl record with John Carewe who play a flat note at a key moment and kill the performance. This is Continental music created by a talented Briton.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mostly fine music, great performances, January 23, 2008

By 

P. Weber (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Frank Bridge: The Sea / Summer / Cherry Ripe / Enter Spring / Lament (Audio CD)

I don't agree with the other review claiming that Enter Spring is a masterpiece. I largely prefer The Sea, a wonderful and evocative work that is far preferable to the astringent Enter Spring - and I'm not a cold person! Summer is also a beautiful work that entices the ear. Throw in Cherry Ripe and you have three nice works that are well crafted and appealing. Lament is rather a bore. Groves does a great job in these works and is accorded fine sound by EMI.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars of variable interest, February 18, 2010

By 

jsa (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Frank Bridge: The Sea / Summer / Cherry Ripe / Enter Spring / Lament (Audio CD)

This disk, which incorporates Frank Bridge's most ambitious compositions for orchestra, demonstates why the composer is better known for his chamber music than his orchestral works. Certainly the centerpiece of this disc, "The Sea," is an atmospheric piece of music, but for as many times as I've listened to it - and I've owned this music for a very long time, going back to the days of vinyl - I still think it sounds like a film score, pleasant enough but ultimately unsatisfying. The four movements, named Seascape, Sea-Foam, Moonlight and Storm, are indicative of the programmatic nature of the music which doesn't offer much more than tonal versions of paint on canvas. The tone poem, "Summer," which follows, holds more interest. In less than ten minutes, Bridge delivers a pastoral-episodic ballad that's pleasant to listen to while having much more underlying substance than "The Sea." The whimsical "Cherry Ripe" is an arrangement for string orchestra of a short piece written for string quartet. "Enter Spring," described as a rhapsody for orchestra, is sturdy, but overlong at 24-plus minutes and not especially engaging. "Lament," which closes this disc, was originally written for piano and fits together reasonably well with the other pieces in this mostly uninspiring compilation.

For those who are new to the work of Frank Bridge I would recommend a Naxos disc, Frank Bridge: Works for String Quartet, an assortment of immensely likable pieces performed by the Maggini Quartet.