This disc of piano music by Frank Bridge will probably confirm, confound, and contradict everything most listeners think they know about English music from Elgar to Britten. The first in a projected complete edition by pianist Mark Bebbington, this disc of Bridge's piano music is all over the late Romantic, early Impressionist, quasi Expressionist European map -- so much so that one may at times reasonably doubt the works are all by one composer from one country. Sometimes, as in the Three Sketches, Bridge is a scented ...
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This disc of piano music by Frank Bridge will probably confirm, confound, and contradict everything most listeners think they know about English music from Elgar to Britten. The first in a projected complete edition by pianist Mark Bebbington, this disc of Bridge's piano music is all over the late Romantic, early Impressionist, quasi Expressionist European map -- so much so that one may at times reasonably doubt the works are all by one composer from one country. Sometimes, as in the Three Sketches, Bridge is a scented sentimentalist with a seductive manner of blending theme, harmony, and form. Sometimes, as in the Vignettes de Marseille, Bridge is a shimmering colorist with an evocative tone and an atmospheric use of sonorities. And sometimes, as in the three-movement sonata, Bridge is a fearsome atonalist with anguished themes, agonized harmonies, and forms as tightly wrapped as an iron maiden. Throughout every change in style, Bebbington is with Bridge, articulating each evolution with a subtle tone...
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