Born: February 26, 1879; Brighton, England
Died: January 10, 1941; Eastbourne, London, England
Frank Bridge studied violin and composition at the Royal College of Music, graduating in 1904. A scholarship enabled him to study with Charles Villiers Stanford for four years (1899-1903). Bridge quickly established a reputation as a gifted violist and conductor. In 1906, he played with the Joachim Quartet, and he was a member of the English String Quartet through 1915. He conducted some operas at the Savoy Theatre and Covent Garden, and when SirRead more Thomas Beecham organized his New Symphony Orchestra in 1906, he named Bridge as his assistant. Bridge also befriended Sir Henry Wood and occasionally substituted for him as conductor at Queen's Hall; Wood later became an important champion of Bridge's music. During this period, Bridge was writing mostly chamber music and songs. His few orchestral works of the time were much influenced by the French Impressionists; the first of them to become part of the standard repertoire was the suite The Sea (1911).
World War I was a traumatic time for Bridge, an ardent pacifist. One can hear more dissonance and darkness creeping into such works as the Cello Sonata in D minor (1913-1917) and the Quartet No. 2 in G minor (1915). After several years of near-silence, Bridge's next big work signaled a large shift in style. The Piano Sonata (1921-1924) was written in memory of composer Ernest Farrar, who was killed in action in France, in 1917. In it, one hears considerably more dissonance, abrupt changes of mood and tempo, and a more angular and aggressive sound. This stylistic evolution continued in works like the third (1926) and fourth (1937) string quartets, which flirt with Schoenberg-like atonality.
In his last two decades, Bridge composed, occasionally conducted, and did some traveling, including trips to the United States in 1923, 1934, and 1938. He also did some private teaching. Certainly his best-known pupil was Benjamin Britten, who was an 11-year-old prodigy when Bridge met him in 1924. Britten retained a great affection for his teacher, and paid tribute to him in the Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (1937), based on the second of the latter's Three Idylls for String Quartet (1906). Britten was also partly responsible for the subsequent interest in Bridge's music.
Among Bridge's later compositions were a lovely opera, The Christmas Rose (begun 1919, set aside for years and completed only in 1930), as well as several important chamber and orchestral works. His last completed composition was the Rebus Overture (1940); he also left a symphony for strings unfinished at his death. Read less
Label: Meridian Records
Catalog: 84641
Release Date: 05/05/2017
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Gordon Jacob,
Fedor Druzhinin,
Edmund Rubbra,
Sergei Prokofiev
...
Performer:
Peter Mallinson,
Matthias Wiesner,
Evgenia Startseva,
Oliver Lowe
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Catalog: 4796969
Release Date: 01/27/2017
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Ottorino Respighi,
Béla Bartók,
Manuel de Falla,
Gustav Holst
...
Performer:
Julius Drake,
Ian Bostridge,
Eric Schneider,
Anna Prohaska
...
Conductor:
Giuseppe Sinopoli,
Pierre Boulez,
Lorin Maazel,
William Steinberg
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
New York Philharmonic,
Chicago Symphony Orchestra,
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
...
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Catalog: 002593102
Release Date: 01/06/2017
Number of Discs: 37
Composer:
Robert Schumann,
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky,
Antonín Dvorák,
Alexander Glazunov
...
Performer:
Mstislav Rostropovich,
Martha Argerich,
Rudolf Serkin,
Bruno Giuranna
...
Conductor:
Gennadi Rozhdestvensky,
Herbert von Karajan,
Seiji Ozawa,
Paul Sacher
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra,
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra,
Boston Symphony Orchestra
...
Label: Warner Classics
Catalog: 2564614724
Release Date: 04/14/2015
Number of Discs: 24
Composer:
Sir Edward Elgar,
Eric Coates,
Thomas Augustine Arne,
Henry Walford Davies
...
Performer:
Noel Rawsthorne,
Anne Collins,
Patricia Hogan,
Claudia Lindsey
...
Conductor:
Sir Charles Groves,
Sir Charles Mackerras
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra,
Liverpool Chorus,
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
...
Recommendation
Label: Warner Classics
Catalog: 5054196393755
Release Date: 04/14/2015
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Joseph Marx,
Modest Mussorgsky,
Fant de Kanter,
Maurice Delage
...
Performer:
Christianne Stotijn,
Joseph Breinl,
Toon Fret,
Rick Stotijn
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Oxalys
Label: Lyrita
Catalog: 2345
Release Date: 10/14/2014
Number of Discs: 4
Composer:
Malcolm Williamson,
Alun Hoddinott,
Charles Villiers Stanford,
Gerald Finzi
...
Performer:
Malcolm Williamson,
Philip Fowke,
Malcolm Binns,
Peter Katin
...
Conductor:
Leonard Dommett,
Barry Wordsworth,
Nicholas Braithwaite,
Vernon Handley
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Philharmonic Orchestra,
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra,
London Symphony Orchestra
...
Recommendation
Label: Naxos
Catalog: 8578269
Release Date: 02/25/2014
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Arnold Bax,
Frank Bridge,
Claude Debussy,
Sir Edward Elgar
...
Performer:
Sarah Connolly,
István Kassai,
François-Joël Thiollier
Conductor:
David Lloyd-Jones,
James Judd,
Jun Märkl,
Simon Wright
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Scottish National Orchestra,
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra,
Lyon National Orchestra
...
Label: Ondine
Catalog: 1246
Release Date: 10/29/2013
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Johannes Brahms,
Frank Bridge,
Robert Mann
Performer:
Rudiger Liebermann,
David Aaron Carpenter,
Bernhard Hartog,
Walter Küssner
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra members
Label: Decca
Catalog: 001922102
Release Date: 10/22/2013
Number of Discs: 27
Composer:
Johann Sebastian Bach,
Henry Purcell,
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
Franz Joseph Haydn
...
Performer:
Adrian Thompson,
John Tobin,
Jenny Hill,
Robert Tear
...
Conductor:
Benjamin Britten
Orchestra/Ensemble:
English Chamber Orchestra,
Wandsworth School Boys' Choir,
Wandsworth School Choir
...
Recommendation