FRANK BRIDGE Songs: Janice Watson/Louise Winter/Jamie MacDougall/Gerald Finley/Roger Vignoles (piano)/Roger Chase (viola) HYPERION CDA67181/2
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When most I wink H5, If I could choose H12, The primrose H13, A Dirge H21, The Devon Maid H25, Dawn and Evening H26, Two Heine Songs H27, Blow, blow, thou winter wind H33, Go not, happy day H34, Night lies on the silent highways H36, A dead violet H38, Cradle song H46, Lean close they cheek H50, Fair daffodils H51, Adoration H57, So perverse H6, Tears, idle tears H62, The Violets Blue H70, Come to me in my dreams H71, My pent-up tears oppress my brain H72, Three songs H76, All things we clasp H77, Love is a rose H81, Dear, when I look into thine eyes H85, Isobel H102, O that it were so! H105, Strew no more ../graphics/red roses H109, Where she lies asleep H113, Love went a-riding H114, Thy hand in mine H124, So early in the morning,O H130, Mantle of Blue H131, The last invocation H136, When you are old and gray H142, Into her keeping H143, What shall I your true love tell? H145 'Tis but a week H146, Three Tagore songs H164, Goldenhair H165, Journey's end H167.

	Almost two-thirds of Frank Bridge’s sixty or so songs belong to his early years - that is, up until about 1907/8. The general consensus (Anthony Payne, Professor Banfield, and here in the excellent sleeve notes by Michael Pilkington) is that Bridge, rather less well read in literature than his compatriots, wrote thoroughly professional songs which however probe none too deeply into the inner meanings of the verses he chose to set (many of which appear to have been selected by, or to please, his teacher Stanford.) Whatever the truth of that may be there is no doubt at all that, amongst those earlier songs that belong convincingly to the Edwardian salon, there are many of great charm and beauty. Bridge was mostly interested in instrumental composition, though, as Michael Pilkington points out, he still elected to write songs even although they remained unpublished for a considerable time and must thus have experienced some poetic compulsion. It is perhaps true to say that the finest of his songs (from that standpoint) are also now the most popular and well-known - Go not, happy day, E’en as a lovely flower, Come to me in my dreams and the astonishing Love went a-riding. It is well known that, in the Piano Sonata of 1921/24, written in response to the death in action in 1918 of Ernest Farrar, Bridge’s expression underwent a kind of ‘sea-change’. While this development is less clearly marked in the songs, these two CDs usefully divide his vocal output, with the first disc recognisably covering the early years - up to around 1908. It was not long before the first strophic settings gave way to a freer treatment - favouring a varied second verse (in poems of three stanzas), frequently returning at the end to the opening music - while setting a single stanza or two verses entails repeating (usually) the earlier words. His choice of poets is unusual - of these 45 songs only two each are to words of Shakespeare and Herrick - Shelley (3), Keats (2) and Tennyson (3) are also represented. Yet there are nine settings of Heine (written between 1903/8) and four of Matthew Arnold. Both the latter occur roughly within certain periods, which does suggest that Bridge reacted musically to these particular poets. The poems overall are in the main love songs - often melancholy, though the emotion is not oppressive. There are echoes of John Ireland and of Quilter - but the obvious influence is of German lieder. I hear echoes particularly of Joseph Marx (curiously Bridge’s unfinished Allegretto for viola and piano resembles quite closely the fugal subject in the 4th movement of Marx’s A major Violin Sonata.) There is also a markedly French influence in the expressive modulations which are very reminiscent of Fauré. The first disc   concludes with the three songs for voice and viola - with the expressive instrumental obbligato pointing the emotion even more cogently than the vocal line - foreshadowing in its intensity the sonorities of the 1917 Cello Sonata - surely one of the loveliest chamber works in British music. The second disc contains only three songs from this earlier period - and after 1908, no further songs appea../graphics/red until 1912 - and by 1913 (with Strew no more roses (Arnold) and When she lies sleeping (Mary Coleridge)) foreshadowings of the mature Bridge become clearer. Almost as if the discovery of Mary Coleridge’s verses set something free, the next song (May 1914) is Love went a’riding, a song unique in his pre-war output (‘tho So early in the Morning shares something of this ecstasy). The developing freedom of harmony and form of the next few songs is evident, although Tis but a week (to words by Gerald Gould) seems to hint retrospectively at his earlier settings of Dawn and Evening and Come to me in my Dreams) Apart from a brief and curious throwback in Joyce’s Goldenhair this development reaches its peak in the fine settings of Tagore, with their rhythmic, harmonic and melodic freedom. Here the theme of ‘hopelessly tragic love’ is fully expressed - with only the final Journey’s End (Humbert Wolfe) to suggest a final and totally negative mood. ‘There were to be no more songs’ … says Pilkington. The composer is well served in this recording. Not many will have had the chance to consider Bridge’s songs in isolation - and the committed soloists sing quite beautifully - with a sensitive accompaniment as we would expect from Roger Vignoles, and richly expansive playing from the violist, Roger Chase. This is a must for all lovers of English song. Reviewer Colin Scott-Sutherland Visit the Frank Bridge web site on this server- a Len Mullenger Commission	Reviewer Colin Scott-Sutherland
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