- Audio CD (Oct 27 2000)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Format: Import
- Label: British Composers/EMI
- ASIN: B00000C2J6
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
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 |
Product Description
From Amazon.co.uk
A perfect introduction to the enormously rewarding output of this underrated figure. The masterpiece here is the 1927 tone-poem, Enter Spring: an astonishingly inventive and riotously colourful outpouring from Bridge's maturity, it is unquestionably one of the pinnacles of 20th-century British orchestral music. The Sea, a thrillingly evocative four-movement suite of breathtaking beauty, is an earlier work (from which Bridge's pupil, Benjamin Britten, picked up plenty of ideas for his Four Sea Interludes). We also get the gorgeous nature-poem Summer (completed in 1914, four years after The Sea) as well as the deeply moving Lament and frolicsome Cherry Ripe.
This enterprising British Composers programme from EMI always was one of Sir Charles Groves's most enduring achievements. Granted, certain individual performances may outflank Groves's in terms of imaginative insight and elemental rapture (Vernon Handley's 1985 account of The Sea with the Ulster Orchestra on Chandos springs to mind, as well as a uniquely cherishable Enter Spring from the 1967 Aldeburgh Festival with the New Philharmonia under Benjamin Britten on BBC Legends). Overall, though, it's an instructive and valuable anthology, and in this latest remastering the expertly balanced 1975 recording comes up as fresh as new paint--do investigate. --Andrew Achenbach
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.ca
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Enter Spring is one of the greatest 20th C Orchestral works
Jan 15 1999
Format: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
Mostly fine music, great performances
Jan 23 2008
Format: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
of variable interest
Feb 18 2010
Format: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.
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.
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Music > Classical > Chamber Music > Quartets
- Music > Classical > Forms & Genres > Suites
- Music > Classical > Forms & Genres > Symphonies
- Music > Classical > Historical Periods
- Music > Classical > Symphonies
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
