Bridge The Sea

Day 48

Bridge The Sea

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Martin Brabbins

 

The Sea has. regardless of its own merits, an important place in musical history. It was at a performance of this in St Andrew's Hall in Norwich (where as I mentioned on day 30 I once saw him) that the 10 year old Benjamin Britten heard this piece - the first time he had heard a live orchestra. He said that we was 'knocked sideways' by the music and it was this that led his to seek composition lessons with Frank Bridge. The rest, as they say, is history.

This was, as far as I remember, my first encounter with the music of Frank Bridge. What a piece this is! It is clearly from the same school as Bax's Tintagel and Vaughan William's Sea Symphony. Like both of those pieces it has a very strong opening but, and this might a view that is not shared by many, both of those pieces never quite live up to their opening. But this is piece does - it retained my interest all the way through and left a very strong impression. It is a symphonic suite with four movements, each with a title reflecting one mood of the sea. To that extent it is reminiscent of Debussy's (three movement) La Mer. Bridge's musical language is not as advanced as Debussy's but by the standards of much English music of the time it is pretty adventurous harmonically and rhythmically. But it is the sheer sound of the orchestra which makes the greatest impact. The final movement is a storm scene and Bridge unleashes a real sense of the power of the storm as it crashes on the waves. No wonder the young Britten was so impressed. His storm music in Peter Grimes is in a very different musical idiom but I am sure that he would have been the first to acknowledge the influence that his teacher had on his sound world.

I'm keen to hear more Frank Bridge. The string quartets seem to be particularly high regarded and they might be the next place to go.