Tuesday 24th June
2025 is the 50th anniversary of the death of Arthur Bliss. This concert is centred around three key works from Arthur Bliss and extends to contemporaries and works that inspired or were inspired by Bliss. All three performers: Mark Bebbington (piano), Rebeca Omordia (piano), and Chu-Yu Yang (violin) all have specialisms in English music in general and Arthur Bliss in particular. Mark Bebbington has previously embarked on recording all of Bliss’s piano works, and in an interview between the release of the first and second volumes of that project said that, “Arthur Bliss’s piano music is out on a limb, and it’s so transcending of any feeling of Englishness.”
The Bliss works highlighted in this memorial concert are:
- Masks (Four Pieces for Pianoforte) F. 141 from 1924
- The Violin Sonata F. 192 from 1916
- Suite F. 148 from 1925
“Masks” is a collection of 4 pieces for solo piano that Bliss wrote while in the United States. Each piece has a very distinct character which are thought to derive from experiences in his military career. The better known Suite, F.148 has its roots in Masks, but even though it is better known, it is far from popular, about which Mark Bebbington has this to say:
”There is absolutely no accounting for the neglect of this wonderful body of piano music. The piano music charts his growth as a composer better than any of his other music….and the big piano works – the Piano Sonata and 1925 Suite, for example – are every bit the equal of his more popular and well known scores, for example, A Colour Symphony and Morning Heroes. Bliss ranks alongside Bridge as perhaps the only British composer of last century who represents an individual musical personality, yet with a full awareness of European, American and Russian musical developments; there is nothing remotely insular or ‘British’ in the piano music of Bliss. Here we find the influences of Stravinsky, Alban Berg…..Charlie Chaplin and George Gershwin – all filtered through one of the most strikingly individual voices from this country.”
The Violin Sonata F.192 was recorded by Chi-Yu Yang and Eric McElroy in April 2025 in a programme that also includes works by Ian Venables who is also represented in tonight’s concert. Adrian Edwards in The Gramophone has said of this CD: “Chu-Yu Yang and Eric McElroy make fine advocates of this appealing music, as they do for the whole programme.” The Bliss Violin Sonata is a single movement work again deriving from Bliss’ experiences of World War I and in terms of his musical development, represents a transition from a pastoral warmth to bold innovative writing.
Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “A Little Piano Book” dates from 1934 and is a collection of 6 miniature pieces often used for examination purposes. Despite the academic association here, these are enjoyable pieces which are in part influenced by JS Bach.
Instantly recognisable are the other Vaughan Williams works in tonight’s concert: the “Fantasia on Greensleeves,” here played with 4 hands on the piano. The two traditional melodies – “Greensleeves” and “Lovely Joan” are neatly woven together by Vaughan Williams,in this Fantasia that was originally written as part of the composer’s opera, “Sir John in Love,” but of course today, it is most often heard as an orchestral miniature.
“The Lark Ascending” is the other familiar Vaughan Williams gem in the concert. Composed in 1914 and inspired by George Meredith’s poem of the same name from 1881, tonight we hear it in its original version for piano and violin rather than the more commonly heard orchestra and violin version from 1921.
Ian Venables is a modern composer of English art song among other genres. The Pastorale is the first piece from “Three Pieces for violin and piano” from 1986, the other pieces being “Romance” and “Dance” respectively. The works were inspired by the countryside around Worcester where Venables took up a teaching appointment.
As with the “Fantasia on Greensleeves,” also played with 4 hands is John Ireland’s “Mai-Dun” (“Great Hill”) from 1921 in the composer’s 1931 arrangement. Mai-Dun is essentially what we would call a tone poem today, and was originally scored for orchestra.
William Alwyn’s “Sonata alla Toccata” completes the programme tonight. Another anniversary I suppose – 2025 marks 120 years since the birth, and 40 years since the death of Alwyn. The “Sonata alla Toccata” has some semblance of Vaughan Willams about it. It is lyrical and virtuosic and has a raucous conclusion “In a mood of uninhibited romanticism”.