Search - Bliss, Chamber Domaine :: Piano Quartet

An interesting Bliss collection

Rodney Gavin Bullock | Winchester, Hampshire Angleterre | 09/24/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Like Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Arthur Bliss was half American and even married an American woman but was nevertheless the quintessential English composer. He was Master of the Queen's Musick and had a public style not a mile away from Elgar's. However, much of his music was intimate and small-scale and it is this aspect of his work which is represented on this disc: four early and two late pieces.The piano quartet (1915) was suppressed by Bliss after the First World War and is recorded here for the first time. It is a very beautiful work and it brought to my mind the glorious piano quartet of Herbert Howells (written at about the same time) though without the rich string harmonies. Both composers were heavily influenced by Vaughan Williams and the opening is pure RVW. Although nothing like the mature Bliss, this quartet is a joy from beginning to end.The two piano pieces, 'Bliss' and The Rout Trot are short, witty trifles in ragtime style, and date from 1922 and 1927 respectively. The second just peters out, which I presume is how it was written!The Four Songs are a group, not a cycle. In the first, 'A Christmas Carol', the soprano is accompanied by the violin and piano. 'Sea Love' is for soprano and violin only, the instrumental line being passionate with much double-stopping, recalling Vaughan Williams' 'Along the Field' cycle. Next, there is a wordless vocalise (with violin) and finally the suitably manic 'The mad woman of Punnet's town' (violin and piano).Bliss was a virtuoso pianist yet he wrote very little for his own instrument. There is the big piano concerto and the solitary piano sonata. In his eighties, he wrote the Triptych (1971). This is marvellous work, composed in a lean style. 'Meditation' is gravely beautiful and Dramatic Recitative alternates loud outbursts with more contemplative passages. The final Capriccio makes for a witty and fast conclusion.Bliss greatly admired the distinguished English poet, Kathleen Raine, and had collaborated with her to produce the Golden Cantata. She writes mystical nature poetry which has affinities with that of William Blake. In 'Angels of the Mind' for soprano and piano (1969), he sets seven of her poems. This is not an easy cycle to get to grips with as the words, rich in imagery but difficult to fully comprehend, must bring problems in their setting to music. For me, it falls into the 'needs repeated hearings' category.The performances by Chamber Domaine are good but I found the voice of Helen Meyerhoff unsympathetic. It is rather harsh with a wide vibrato and some uncertainty in intonation at times. The recording is also good but there is a rather strange balance in the first set of songs. The violin sounds distant, the piano much closer with the soprano somewhere in the middle. The insert notes are excellent and include the texts of the songs."