Bliss: Cello Concerto / Music For Strings / Two Studies

Description

Arthur Bliss (1891 -1975)Two StudiesMusic for StringsConcerto for Cello and Orchestra Within months of the end of the Great War, Arthur Blissexploded onto a music scene that for something like sixty years he successivelyoutraged, intrigued, transformed, enriched, guided and graced. A strikingseries of 'experiments in sound' divided the critics and gripped the public, aperiod recalled by that great Bliss enthusiast Benjamin Brit ten in a letter tothe senior composer on his 75th birthday: My dear Arthur,When one is very young, tales of one elder's youthfulexploits set one's sympathy vibrating strongly... In my boyhood you, Arthur, werethe avant gardist of Rout, Conversations and daring, possibly apocryphalParisian exploits. You were almost a myth. ...For me still, the zestful avant gardistpeeps out of the silvery halo of to-day. Happy you who can preserve youthfulexuberance without youthful immaturity! On this compact disc we can enjoy works from both periods,that of experiment and silvery halo'd youthful maturity, together with aquintessential masterpiece from the height of his commanding powers. Few things that are not bad for my health or morals giveme more pleasure than to see the Two Studies, his very first orchestralcomposition, recorded. Not only are they a delight which throws light on anexciting period of Bliss's work, but a delight many of us never expected toenjoy.Bliss was discharged from the army in February 1919, having endured a war inwhich he was wounded, gassed, earned recommendations for gallantry decorations,witnessed inconceivable slaughter and atrocities, saw many friends slain andlost a brother with whom he had been extremely close. He was then 28, naturallya late developer, with his youth poisoned, his family shattered, and with aharrowingly acquired, spurious maturity. He did what many another artist did topreserve his sanity: he went on a kind of binge, cramming his days with travel,lecturing, conducting, performing, reviewing and composing a succession of ground-breakingscores. He forged a highly personal style, while encountering the best Europeancomposers on level terms and establishing a British equivalent. Amongst the catalogue of idiosyncratic, rather subversiveworks are these Studies, written at some speed to meet a deadline forsubmissions to the Royal College of Music's 'Patrons' Fund Concerts' - semi-publicopen rehearsal/performances, and one of the few openings for orchestral worksby new composers. Bliss conducted the first performance on 17th February, 1921. They were heard perhaps twice more before disappearing from sight for over half acentury. Stylistically, Bliss was then the outsider, with neither sympathy norsense of belonging as regards any of the current British musical schools. It wasto the continent that he looked, and to France that he went, to perform, inNovember 1919. The composer Josef Holbrooke had masterminded a trip to Pariswhere both composer-pianists were to play their