Bliss, Arthur (1891 - 1975)

[Roehre]

Perhaps influence is the wrong word.
There is something that links many of these British composers.
I've no idea what it is,a harmonic thing,certain chords,modes or maybe something intangible.
It is present in Parry, Stanford,Britten,Elgar,Bliss,Simpson,RVW and so many others
Help needed

and it's something what makes their music "typically" and "recognizably" British for non-Britons

[Once Was 4]

The keeper of the house encyclopedia of British music , ( EdgeleyRob) once described Bliss as " the most neglected of the neglected".
This neglect is a mystery to me.
His ballet scores are treasures of British music.
Other highlights for me are the Viola Sonata, the Colour symphony, and the Cello concerto.
But TBH there is an absolute wealth of wonderful music, and I think the quality of the works available on CD is exceptionally strong.

The Naxos disc pairing the Colour Symphony and Adam Zero is simply the best thing you can buy for a couple of quid, end of.
One of my few " bucket list " things is to see a production of Adam Zero. Turns out there was one in Bremerhaven this very year. If there Are ballet gods, they will arrange for the company to tour it in the UK. The stills on the Facebook page look beautiful....but I' m rambling now......


https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...7684493&type=3

I am responsible for (guilty of?) the 4th horn playing on the Naxos 'Colour Symphony' CD and I saw the conductor David Lloyd-Jones last Saturday in York when this CD came up in conversation. It is obviously a recording for which he has particular affection and regards it as one of his best. I remember that we had performed the work in a lunchtime concert at Leeds Town Hall a couple of days before and thoroughly enjoyed it. BTW: Bliss's nephew is/was a horn player and freelanced around Yorkshire during the 70s. It's a small world!

[Keraulophone]

Why Morning Heroes doesn't feature as often as the War Requiem is beyond me.

...and also beyond me. The fine John Westbrook / RLPO+Ch / Sir Charles Groves (1974) recording is the very apposite coupling on the EMI 'British Composers' reissue of Rattle's CBSO War Requiem (1983).

Morning Heroes was performed at this year's Three Choirs Festival in Hereford Cathedral on 27th July. Three Choirs Festival Chorus and Philharmonia Orchestra cond. Sir Andrew Davis. There may have been a R3 broadcast or recording, but I didn't spot it.

Review by John Quinn: http://seenandheard-international.co...oirs-festival/

There seems to be a slight revival of interest in Bliss... a sign of Things to Come?

[Keraulophone]

There is something that links many of these British composers... Parry, Stanford, Britten, Elgar, Bliss, Simpson, RVW and so many others

Apart from EE, they all had links with the RCM, though CVS didn't study there, and RWLS was taught externally by Howells. Perhaps it was the view of the grandiloquent RAH across the road, the architectural fantasy of the RCM building, the selection of whiskies in the RCM bar? We will never know.

This is despite Beecham's caustic remark that a sign should be placed above its entrance displaying Dante's warning: 'Abandon all hope, ye who enter here'.

[visualnickmos]

I am responsible for (guilty of?) the 4th horn playing on the Naxos 'Colour Symphony' CD and I saw the conductor David Lloyd-Jones last Saturday in York when this CD came up in conversation. It is obviously a recording for which he has particular affection and regards it as one of his best. I remember that we had performed the work in a lunchtime concert at Leeds Town Hall a couple of days before and thoroughly enjoyed it. BTW: Bliss's nephew is/was a horn player and freelanced around Yorkshire during the 70s. It's a small world!

'Congratulations' are well in order, then. I love that CD. One of my 'most listened to'. Someone I knew once who was a brass player, told me that David Lloyd-Jones was a great conductor to work for; that when rehearsing with him, there was always a genial and 'good vibe' feel about the place. A really nice guy, too....

[Exonian]

The Charles Groves recording of Morning Heroes with the RLPO has always been a personal favourite as is the Colour Symphony issued on EMI with the RPO back in the 70s. Bliss is one of the many composers who has seen their critical stock ebb and flow but for many (certainly in this place) his music has always been very fine, often superb.

I really like his Introduction and Allegro and his Music for Strings. The 1987 Vernon Handley/RPO EMI cd with Adam Zero/Checkmate/Meditations on a Theme of John Blow is a classic.

I am no doubt way off-kilter here but he always represents a musician moved toward an increasingly conservative and traditional musical language, with no loss of creativity.

[Serial_Apologist]

The Charles Groves recording of Morning Heroes with the RLPO has always been a personal favourite as is the Colour Symphony issued on EMI with the RPO back in the 70s. Bliss is one of the many composers who has seen their critical stock ebb and flow but for many (certainly in this place) his music has always been very fine, often superb.

I really like his Introduction and Allegro and his Music for Strings. The 1987 Vernon Handley/RPO EMI cd with Adam Zero/Checkmate/Meditations on a Theme of John Blow is a classic.

I am no doubt way off-kilter here but he always represents a musician moved toward an increasingly conservative and traditional musical language, with no loss of creativity.

You mean the Music for Strings of 1935, Exonian? That is a piece that for me exemplifies how a composer who, as you say exhibited increasingly conservative tendencies (in common with a number of his near-contemporaries) was successfully able to blend a stately Elgarian deportment, already hinted at in the first movement of the Colour Symphony, with influences from Neo-Classical Stravinsky, notably the latter's Apollon Musagete.

[Exonian]

You mean the Music for Strings of 1935, Exonian? That is a piece that for me exemplifies how a composer who, as you say exhibited increasingly conservative tendencies (in common with a number of his near-contemporaries) was successfully able to blend a stately Elgarian deportment, already hinted at in the first movement of the Colour Symphony, with influences from Neo-Classical Stravinsky, notably the latter's Apollon Musagete.

Yes - that's the one. A masterpiece for me, premiered by Boult and the VPO at Salzburg in 1935. That must have been some concert to witness. My favourite recordings were the old 1966 Lyrita classic CBSO/Hugo Rignold, the 1974 LPO/Boult and Bliss' own 1970 on the HMV 20 series with the Philharmonia.

Your characterisation of the piece (and Bliss) for me is spot-on.

[EdgeleyRob]

and it's something what makes their music "typically" and "recognizably" British for non-Britons

Thanks Roehre.

I wonder what it is ?

[EdgeleyRob]

Posts 17 to 19.
Thanks once was 4 and keraulophone

[Oliver]

Thanks Once Was 4....that recording is one that has given me great pleasure over the years. And the Colour Symphony performance, I think, is better than Handley's. Praise indeed.
It's a pity that the same forces didn't record Miracle in the Gorbals; the Naxos recording (from Australia) is acceptable but a little tentative at times. We urgently need a new one.

[EdgeleyRob]

Just ordered



About time we had a new Morning Heroes.
I don't know The Beatitudes or indeed anything on the Lyrita cd.
Anyone heard these recordings yet ?

[Suffolkcoastal]

I know Madam Noy & Rout, they're early Bliss works and have a rather Stravinskyian bite to them. I'm not sure about the soloist Jennifer Vyvyan, not one of my favourite singers with that fast shrill vibrato voice, almost sounds neurotic at times, but might suit Madame Noy.

[EdgeleyRob]

I know Madam Noy & Rout, they're early Bliss works and have a rather Stravinskyian bite to them. I'm not sure about the soloist Jennifer Vyvyan, not one of my favourite singers with that fast shrill vibrato voice, almost sounds neurotic at times, but might suit Madame Noy.

Thanks sc,I look forward to getting to know these pieces.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Heads up - following on from Morning Heroes, a new Chandos recording of The Beatitudes plus the National Anthem is scheduled. Sessions are in May at Watford Colosseum following the SAD/BBCSC/BBCSO performance (Beatitudes only) at the Barbican.