Search - Arthur Bliss, Nicholas Daniel, Michael Cox :: Chamber Music Vol. 1 - String Quartet No. 1; Conversations for Flute, Oboe, Violin, Viola and Cello

Rarely heard Bliss

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 01/20/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bliss, probably best known for his 'Colour Symphony' and the ballet, 'Checkmate', was master of the Queen's Music from 1953 until his death in 1975. He is often said to write in a late-Elgarian mold, and indeed his early String Quartet in A, composed in 1914, has Elgarian overtones. But there is a tinge of French impressionism as well. It is played here with real élan by the well-regarded Maggini Quartet. The second movement seems influenced by the still-popular folk-song movement of the time.'Conversations for Flute, Oboe, Violin, Viola and Cello' is altogether lighter descriptive music, and more Milhaud than Elgar. The titles of the individual movements give some idea of this: 'The Committee Meeting' wherein the chairman [violin] keeps trying to establish order, bucolic 'In the Wood', mildly jazzy 'In the Ballroom', Soliloquy' [for solo cor anglais], and the ragtimey 'In the Tube of Oxford Circus.' It is not surprising that the work's première took place in a concert along with music of Tailleferre, Milhaud, and Poulenc. It would have fit right in that group from 'Les Six.' The First String Quartet in B flat, from thirty years after the Quartet in A and in a rather astringent harmonic language, was written in America in the early years of World War II and given its première in Berkeley. Most striking is the second movement with its asymmetrical rhythms. Another recommendable CD from Naxos, which seems to go from triumph to triumph."