Frank Bridge: Violin Sonata (1932) - John McLaughlin Williams, Violin; Diane Huling, Piano

John McLaughlin Williams, Violin Diane Huling, Piano For many years after his premature death Frank Bridge (1879-1941) was just a footnote in Benjamin Britten's biography (Bridge being Britten's principal teacher). Yet he alone among English composers of his generation trod a lonely path toward forcing English music (in its prevailing romantic-pastoral style) to come to terms with European modernism. Beginning as a highly effective romantic composer of chamber music, songs and the famous suite "The Sea", Bridge consciously tied up loose stylistic ends during WWI and embarked on a journey that ultimately gave his music a searing expressive power. His significant audiences (who remained in thrall to his earlier, more easygoing efforts) were completely bewildered by the appearance of works like the 3rd and 4th String Quartets, Piano Trio No.2, Oration and the Violin Sonata. Bridge suffered neglect in performance, and critical rejection, though this was ameliorated to an extent by patronage and promotion by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. When Bridge died in 1941, his music fell silent for decades until a gradual reassessment began in the 1970's. With many recordings having appeared in the last twenty years, the extent of Bridge's magnificent achievement is now acknowledged, and he is recognized as one of the greatest of twentieth-century composers produced by Britain. His late works stand with those produced by the most famous names of that time. The Violin Sonata is in one movement with four discernible sections that correspond to the separate movements of a standard sonata, though Bridge employs a favored formal device known as Arch Form, wherein the latter part of a given work is in essence a mirror image of the first part. Themes appear, and later appear in reversed order. Bridge's motives are easily recognized and tightly worked into the musical argument, so that the overall effect of the music is of an extraordinary organizational skill wedded to challenging, yet attractive melodic material. Note the first movement's second subject, and then its supporting harmony; heard by itself this motive would sound as a conventional romantic tune. However, Bridge hears it as a refraction, and underpinning it he employs some very unusual harmony, with the result that it is as if seeing familiar shapes through a prism. It is familiar, yet transformed. This is but one small example of the magic of Bridge's later music. This is a live performance of Bridge's Violin Sonata done in the studio of WGBH Boston. (The acoustic is somewhat dry.)