Calendarul muzical al zilei - 2 august 2015

[altmariusclassic]

1891 S-a născut compozitorul român Mihail Jora (decedat 10.05.1971) 124 ani 1891 S-a născut compozitorul englez Arthur Bliss (decedat 27.03.1975) 124 ani 1893 S-a născut compozitorul român Alfred Alessandrescu (decedat 18.02.1959) 122 ani 1915 S-a născut pianistul român Gheorghe Halmoş (decedat 13.09.1985) 100 ani 1921 Comemorarea tenorului italian Enrico Caruso 94 ani 1937 Aniversarea sopranei austriac Gundula Janowitz 78 ani 1945 Comemorarea compozitorului italian Pietro Mascagni 70 ani 2012 Comemorarea pianistei românce Mihaela Ursuleasa 3 ani

Arthur Bliss - String Quartet in A major:
Moderato ma tranquillo
Andante sostenuto
Allegro vivace con grazia.

There are now, as there have always been, very few recordings of the chamber music of Arthur Bliss. This is not for want of quality: Bliss was a supremely skilled composer whose works had a large international audience between the two world wars and whose chamber works are as brilliant and moving as the chamber works of Elgar, Walton, or Vaughan Williams. But as with so much brilliant and moving music, there is only so much room for great music on the shelves of record collectors, and Bliss has been pushed off the shelf by Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. This is a shame because this disc of chamber music by Bliss is as lovely and affecting as any disc released around the same time. Bliss' Quartet in B flat is as beautiful a quartet as was composed in the '20s, with fluent writing and a heart-rending Sostenuto slow movement, his Conversations for winds and strings is sprightly and touching, and his early Quartet in A major is energetic and enthusiastic with a graceful closing Allegro vivace. The performances by England's Maggini Quartet, along with wind players Nicholas Daniel and Michael Cox, are dedicated and completely convincing.



Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, (2 August 1891 -- 27 March 1975) was an English composer and conductor.
Bliss's musical training was cut short by the First World War, in which he served with distinction in the army. In the post-war years he quickly became known as an unconventional and modernist composer, but within the decade he began to display a more traditional and romantic side in his music. In the 1920s and 1930s he composed extensively not only for the concert hall, but also for films and ballet.
In the Second World War, Bliss returned to England from the US to work for the BBC and became its director of music. After the war he resumed his work as a composer, and was appointed Master of the Queen's Music.
In Bliss's later years, his work was respected but was thought old-fashioned, and it was eclipsed by the music of younger colleagues such as William Walton and Benjamin Britten. Since his death, his compositions have been well represented on record, and many of his better-known works remain in the repertoire of British orchestras.