This is Redcliffe's
third disc in their British String Quartets
series.
The Bridge quartet
(his last) continues his alliance with
1930s continental models. It has more
in common with Berg, Haba, Bartók
and late Zemlinsky than with his own
music from the teens of the century.
The music critics of his day could not
forgive him for his self-chosen abdication
from the exalted heights of lyricism
pronounced by his Summer and The Sea.
This quartet and its predecessor as
well as the 1929 Piano trio were roundly
condemned with Bridge effectively damned
as a follower of the latest fashionable
camp. The music of the Fourth Quartet
is probing, fierce, psychologically
ambiguous, haunted, confident and while
it may not be out and out twelve tone
there is nothing tentative about the
way it embraces dissonance. The work
was written for his patroness, Elizabeth
Sprague Coolidge whose cheques sustained
him for many years. The quartet was
premiered at Mrs Coolidge's Berkshire
Festival at Pittsfield, Massachusetts
in September 1939 just as the world
was lurching into another era of slaughter.
Bridge had seen enough of war with favourite
pupils (including Ernest Farrar) killed
amid the bloodletting of the English
officer class at Mons and the Somme.
Ironically this work ends with an optimistic
skip in its otherwise jaundiced step.
Alan Bush was
another composer, albeit of a later
generation than Bridge, who drew sustenance
from the Continental traditions. Bush's
Suite of Six is the last of his
four works for string quartet and was
premiered by the Chilingirians in London
on 15 December 1975. It is full of energy,
variety and incident. The Reel
(tr. 6) dances and bustles along breathing
the English folk tradition but freed
from smocks and pitchforks - ‘Dance
clarion air’ indeed! It feels coherent
across its eight sections each tracked
separately. The Moto Perpetuo
(tr.9) coasts close to Frank Bridge's
Roger de Coverley - delightful!
The work ends in a wraithlike tendrils
of melody. This is the work's premiere
recording. The change of recording venue
from the Bridge imparts a cooler air
which is marginally uncongenial to the
music. Nothing serious - I simply preferred
the immediacy of the other acoustic.
Nothing to detract from a very fine
addition to the string quartet catalogue
and a pathfinder for the eventual issue
of the ClassicO CD of Bush's first two
symphonies. Surely we will not have
to wait more than a couple of years
now before the Piano Concerto is recorded
alongside two other masterworks of the
Bush oeuvre: the opera The Sugar
Reapers and the Byron Symphony.
The sound achieved
by the Bochmann in the Purcell/Britten
Chacony is like poured molten
platinum - searing in its emotional
heat and intense in its concentration.
Leaving aside the shortish
playing time (there was room for another
quartet - perhaps one of Bernard Van
Dieren's six would have gained real
éclat for Redcliffe) this disc
is bound to attract interest. There
are other performances of the Bridge
but the Bridge/Bush juxtaposition works
well. Repertoire explorers are unlikely
to be anything other than delighted
that these serious and inspired works
can now be had together and in the case
of the Bush for the first time in the
commercial catalogue.
Hats off to Redcliffe
for their spirited way with this recording
project. Also they should stick with
the more colourful design they have
found for the cover of this CD. Previous
discs have been rather sober affairs.
This looks the part and catches the
eye on the shelf.
Rob Barnett
MusicWeb
Frank Bridge Pages
Redcliffe
Recording Catalogue
The newly established
Alan
Bush Trust website email info@alanbushtrust.org.uk
Bochmann String Quartet