BLISS conducts Bliss: Violin Concerto, A Colour Symphony (1955) - PASC727

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overviewfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fBLISS Violin ConcertoBLISS A Colour SymphonyStudio recordings, 1955Total duration: 69:02Alfredo Campoli, violinLondon Philharmonic Orchestra London Symphony Orchestraconducted by Sir Arthur Bliss578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9review_titlefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fReview578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9review_quotefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fA worthy addition to the Bliss catalogue: two important works, performed under the baton of the composer. Enthusiasts will be delighted to have this superb restoration578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9review_bodyfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fThere have been several reissues of Arthur Bliss’s Violin Concerto and A Colour Symphony , conducted by the composer. (I was introduced to both on the old Decca Eclipse label; it had remarkable covers, usually depicting a National Trust property.) These date from the early 1970s. The original monaural recordings were made in November 1955.A Colour Symphony was Bliss’s first major orchestral work; he revised it a decade later. It was premiered at the Gloucester Three Choirs Festival on 7 September 1922, to mixed reviews.The symphony, inspired by the symbolic meanings of colours in heraldry, has four movements: Purple, Red, Blue and Green . Each embodies characteristics associated with its respective color, such as royalty and death for Purple, and courage and magic for Red.I think that colours and their connection to the listener’s enjoyment of the symphony can be safely ignored. Just enjoy it as a symphony with four contrasting movements “full of vitality and beauty”. Bliss and the LSO give an authoritative account, which holds the attention from the first note to the last.One contemporary critic of the original LP (Decca, LXT 5170), impressed by the “exhilarating performance”, considered that “the time is long overdue for this full-blooded music to take its proper place in the concert hall beside Elgar and Vaughan Williams”. His prophecy was never to be. The last time the work was played at a Promenade Concert was in 2006.To be sure, there are other outstanding recordings of A Colour Symphony : by Vernon Handley and the Ulster Orchestra, (Chandos 8503, 1987), David Lloyd-Jones and the English Northern Philharmonic Orchestra (Naxos 8.533460, 1996) and Richard Hickox and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (Chandoc 10380, 2006). Even so, there is an inherent value in having Bliss’s own interpretation to hand.At the same time, Arthur Bliss recorded his Violin Concerto and the now largely forgotten Theme and Cadenza . This time the orchestra was the London Philharmonic with the violin soloist, the Italian-born Alfredo Campoli. The LP was issued in April 1956 on Decca LXT 5166.Bliss wrote his forty-minute Violin Concerto at a time of considerable political tension in Europe. There are three movements: Allegro ma non troppo , Vivo – tranquillo and Introduzione (Andante); Allegro deciso in modo zingaro) . The overall mood of the piece is a studied contrast between lyrical beauty and dramatic passion, which seems to echo the age.Campoli gives a splendid account of the concerto which gives him little opportunity for relaxation. He dominates the proceedings from the first to the last, playing with refinement and proficiency. There is a warmth of tone that is often beguiling. The concerto was premiered in 1939 by the present soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.Another recording of Bliss’s Violin Concerto, in 1968, once again featured Campoli and the composer but with the BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC Classics 15656 91842, 1996). I have not heard this album. Two other recordings of the concerto have been released: by Lydia Mordkovitch with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Richard Hickox (Chandos 10380, 2006) and Lorraine McAslan and the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Martin Yates (Dutton Epoch, CDLX 7342, 2017).The work is a significant contribution to the genre. Alongside Edward Elgar’s (1910) and William Walton’s (1939) pieces, Bliss’s essay is the third pillar of the triumvirate of great Violin Concertos composed by an Englishman. Sadly, it is rarely heard in the concert hall. Its last outing at the Proms was on 3 August 1955.The present remastering is due to Andrew Rose, who took the original monaural edits and “dusted them down a little, [to] bring greater space and finer tone to both recordings, further enhancing two excellent examples of Decca’s mid-fifties output”. He also supplied the liner notes, which, if I am honest, are a little bit lacking. Basically, it is a concatenation of two contemporary reviews from The Gramophone magazine , with a concluding comment.This disc is a worthy addition to the Bliss catalogue: two important works, performed under the baton of the composer. Enthusiasts will be delighted to have this superb restoration.John France578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9main_samplefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fsamples/PASC727.mp3578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_labelfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fProducer's Note578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_typefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fcontent578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_contentfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f The main work … on this disc is the Concerto, commissioned by the B.B.C. and first played at the Royal Festival Hall in May of last year with Campoli (to whom it is dedicated) as soloist. The performance here is a fine one, and Decca have produced for it one of their very best recordings, of great clarity but warm tone. The concerto itself is as yet too little known for the musical world to have been able to assess its stature, and this recording will therefore be of all the greater value. Personally, I find the work among Bliss’s most effective, full of energy and nervous tension, in the composer’s most mordant vein, also with considerable lyricism, and certainly brilliantly written for the soloist. Is it, perhaps, a little long for its material in the first move­ment? The Scherzo is pithy, and the finale unusual in structure, consisting of a slow introduction leading to an Allegro deciso in gipsy style. I look forward to becoming more familiar with this concerto through this admirable recording. Lionel Salter, The Gramophone, June 1956 The Colour Symphony was [Bliss’s] first large-scale orchestral work, and was written for the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester in 1922: with poetic justice, the orchestra chosen to record it now is that which gave the first performance on that occasion (are there, I wonder, any of the early players till with it?). In the original score the movements bore, beside the designations Purple, Red, Blue and Green, sub-titles relating these colours to their heraldic sig­nificance (“ Purple, the colour of amethysts, pageantry, royalty and death ”, etc.); but when Bliss revised the symphony ten years later, he cut out this “programme” so that the music should be listened to on its own terms. Heard to-day, in this full-blooded performance under the composer, one is conscious of his disciplined exuberance at thirty years old, and of the distance he has travelled since: there are moments never­theless — the dissonant syncopated passage in Red, the “optimistic” second fugue in Green— which point forward to his fully mature style. To-day he would probably thin out the scoring (though I hope he would leave the exciting six-timpani flourishes near the end): indeed, the tendency towards a more clean-cut texture is already seen in the other work recorded here, the Introduction and Allegro dedicated to Stokowski (who conducted the first performance in 1927 in Philadelphia) … The composer secures a convincing performance from the L.S.O., and the recording is perfectly good, if not quite in the same class as that of the Violin Concerto. Lionel Salter, The Gramophone, August 1956 Looking back some 69 years to the month of November 1955, when these two recordings were made, it is hard to understand how Bliss came to conduct two different orchestras in his own works in the same month – for the same record company and at the same venue. It is something which has clearly confused Decca in some of its later reissues, where artwork and texts have been both confused and, at times, incorrect! Both were produced and engineered by Decca’s crack team of John Culshaw and Kenneth Wilkinson, and the sound quality of the mono originals is excellent for its day, even if better things were just around the corner for the London-based label. These XR-remastered Ambient Stereo issues have dusted them down a little, bring greater space and finer tone to both recordings, further enhancing two excellent examples of Decca’s mid-fifties output.Andrew Rose 578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_cover_thumbnail1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_cover_thumbnail2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_cover_download_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample3_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample4_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample5_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample6_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_labelfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fFull Track Listing578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_typefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5ftrack_listing578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_contentfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fBLISS conducts BlissBLISS Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, F.111 (1955)1. 1st mvt. - Allegro ma non troppo - Più animato (14:26)2. 2nd mvt. - Vivo - Tranquillo (6:49)3. 3rd mvt. - Introduzione. Andante sostenuto - Allegro deciso in modo zingaro (16:31)Campoli, violinLondon Philharmonic OrchestraRecorded 9-11 November, 1955BLISS A Colour Symphony, F.106 (1921-22,rev.1932) 4. 1st mvt. - Purple (6:39)5. 2nd mvt. - Red (6:54)6. 3rd mvt. - Blue (9:54)7. 4th mvt. - Green (7:49)London Symphony OrchestraRecorded 23-24 November, 1955conducted by Sir Arthur BlissXR remastering by: Andrew RoseCover artwork based on a photograph of BlissRecorded at Kingsway Hall, LondonTotal duration: 69:02578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_cover_thumbnail1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_cover_thumbnail2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_cover_download_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample3_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample4_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample5_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample6_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_labelfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fCover Art578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_typefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fcover_art578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_contentfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_cover_thumbnail1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fcovers/thumbs/PASC727.jpg578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_cover_thumbnail2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_cover_download_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fcovers/PASC727.pdf578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample3_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample4_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample5_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample6_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f Show more