This is a first-rate performance of Bliss’s Cello Concerto from Tim Hugh, stylishly and sympathetically partnered by David Lloyd-Jones and the English Northern Philharmonia. Written for Mstislav Rostropovich (who first performed it under Benjamin Britten at the 1970 Aldeburgh Festival), the work is a delightful creation, ideally proportioned, impeccably crafted (Bliss’s orchestration is a model of restraint and transparency) and full of the most beguiling invention (the central Larghetto is an especially haunting inspiration). Now that Robert Cohen’s useful account with the RPO under Barry Wordsworth (Argo, 9/94) has succumbed to the deletion-axe, the only competition comes from Raphael Wallfisch and the Ulster Orchestra under that long-time Bliss champion, Vernon Handley. Although this rival account is marvellously eloquent, its superior executive and technical qualities are all but matched by this enticingly priced new version. Hugh responds with commanding assurance, great beauty of tone and rapt commitment throughout, and the accompaniment is sprightly and sensitive to match.
What makes this Naxos release indispensable to all Bliss admirers is the inclusion of the Two Studies (his very first orchestral pieces). These date from 1921 and were believed lost until they turned up in the composer’s papers after his death in 1975. The first (marked Adagio ma non troppo) is a memorably chaste, coolly serene affair, scored with delicious poise, whereas the second (Allegro) is an energetic, good-humoured and occasionally face-pulling romp in the spirit of Bliss’s own earlier Rout for soprano and chamber ensemble. (Intriguingly, these two enchanting essays are labelled as Nos. 2 and 3 on the back of the case; No. 1, it would seem, eventually became the colourful offering we know as Bliss’s Melee fantasque.)
That just leaves the tremendous Music for Strings, and here, alas, is where reservations have to be raised. This superb score displays and demands a formidable technical facility and Bliss’s exhilaratingly well-judged writing would surely test any string section in the world (how the VPO players under Sir Adrian Boult must have relished the challenge at the 1935 Salzburg Festival premiere). It would be idle to pretend that the hard-working strings of the English Northern Philharmonia are ideally secure protagonists and comparative listening with Boult’s electrifying BBC SO account from 1937 (coupled with the same partnership’s superb 1946 recording of VW’s Job – see below), not to mention Richard Hickox’s admirable Chandos version (with an exceptionally well-prepared Northern Sinfonia) merely underlines the niggling shortcomings of the newcomer. Lloyd-Jones’s clear-headed, expressive interpretation serves the work well; only in the finale’s crucial introductory bars (which sow the thematic seeds for all that follows) did I feel that his approach was oddly perfunctory, and rather lacking the necessary tingling expectancy.
Look elsewhere, then, if the Music for Strings is your prime concern. The Cello Concerto and the Two Studies alone though, will probably be enticement enough for many readers. Giles Easterbrook’s extensive booklet-notes are characteristically perceptive and the recorded sound is excitingly realistic.AA