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 and a superb technique plus emotional honesty and intellectual integrity. Almost alone among English composers of his generation in cultivating the piano, Bridge deserves credit where credit is due, and anyone interested in English music from
Elgar to
Britten will enjoy this recording. Somm's digital sound is a bit distant and a tad clattery in fuller passages.