COMPOSERS: Bliss
LABELS: Chandos
ALBUM TITLE: Bliss
WORKS: Violin Concerto; A Colour Symphony
PERFORMER: Lydia Mordkovitch (violin); BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Richard Hickox
CATALOGUE NO: CHAN 10380
At once opulent, rhythmically
virile and spiced with typical 1920s
dissonance, Bliss’s Colour Symphony
was the work that put him on the
map and it remains one of his most
characteristic achievements. It’s
fared well on disc – the composer’s
own 1950s account with the LSO
(and he was a very good conductor)
is a classic, originally recorded for
Decca but last reissued by Dutton.
Barry Wordsworth turned in a
sturdy version for Nimbus with
the BBC Welsh SO (as it then
was), and Chandos already have a
Vernon Handley performance with
the Ulster Orchestra in their back
catalogue. However the only current
competitor with this new Richard
Hickox version (the second to use
what is now the BBC National
Orchestra of Wales) is David Lloyd-
Jones’s splendid performance for
Naxos with the English Northern
Philharmonia, very competitive at
its bargain price. But I feel Hickox
just comes out in front, projecting
Bliss’s invention in full splendour.
Chandos’s recording efficiently
disentangles and differentiates the various lines in the sometimes
congested tuttis, confirming the
composer’s contrapuntal powers.
The Violin Concerto is a more
problematic piece. Written for
Campoli, it certainly celebrates
the original dedicatee’s renowned
cantabile and gypsy fire, but makes
a fainter impression than, say, the
Walton Concerto, to which it is
stylistically close. Bliss had problems
with the finale, and the complex
form he eventually found for it is
always in danger of sounding merely
rhapsodic. But it is a splendid
vehicle for a violinist of the right
temperament, and Lydia Mordkovich
rises to its challenges with ardour
and consummate technique. While
the composer’s own version with
Campoli remains unavailable,
there is no rival, and devotees of the
composer will need no persuasion to
acquire this valuable addition to his
discography. Calum MacDonald