What a wealth of unknown treasure this splendid disc contains. I can only hope that lots of pianists will buy it and be persuaded to include some of Frank Bridge's genre pieces in their recitals. Peter Jacobs is a convinced advocate of this music and plays it with affection and insight as well as, of course, consummate technical skill.
This disc—Vol. 1 of the complete music for piano—does not contain the tremendous Sonata of 1923–4, but the works Jacobs has included range from 1905 to 1928. They represent, therefore, the early 'romantic' Bridge and the more ascetic post-1918 Bridge, his whole creative world affected by the First World War, which he abominated. Thus, in pieces like ''Retrospect'' and ''Through the Eaves'' from In Autumn, composed in 1924, the harmonic idiom is more complex and radical, the tonality less clearly defined. Throughout all these piano pieces a French influence is detectable, and one feels that Debussy, had he lived, might have composed in a style and mood similar to Bridge's.
The earlier pieces have a harmonic clarity that removes any risk of their cloying. They are a world away from Bax's hot-house, for example. The Sea Idyll of 1905 is a particularly fetching example of Bridge's style at that period. Great charm, too, may be experienced in his Fairy Tale Suite of 1917—an English Ma mere l'oye—and the first set of Miniature Pastorals, also 1917, composed for children. Here there is a kinship with Elgar who also fled from the horrible realities of the world of 1917 into an escapist wand of youth. Oddly, the second set of Pastorals, composed in 1921, has lost its innocence—the post-war disillusion touches some of these delightful pieces with frost. The effect is infinitely poignant.
The war is remembered, too, in Three Improvisations for the Left Hand, composed in 1918, not of course for Paul Wittgenstein, but for an English pianist Douglas Fox, who had lost his right arm. Quite apart from their intrinsic value as music, they are notable examples of Bridge's skill as a keyboard composer. The most 'advanced' pieces on the disc are A Dedication, tonally wayward and emotionally enigmatic, and Gargoyle of 1928. The latter was the last piano piece Bridge wrote. It was rejected by his publisher, presumably because it was regarded as too dissonant and 'difficult'. Peter Jacobs restores this remarkable piece to us in an edition by Paul Hindmarsh. This beautifully recorded recital is highly recommended. Beware, however, of the timings given on the jewel case; they are inaccurate in several cases.'