Arthur Bliss - A Colour Symphony; Violin Concerto

Arthur BLISS (1891-1975)

A Colour Symphony (1921-22, rev. 1932) 

Violin Concerto (1953-55) 

Lydia Mordkovitch (violin)

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Richard Hickox

rec. Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, 17-18 January 2006

Strange we’ve had to wait such an age for a modern version of Bliss’s Violin Concerto. Written in 1953-54 for Alfredo Campoli (who left us two compelling recordings – for Decca and the BBC, 9/95 and 2/97, both nla – with the composer wielding the baton), it’s a meaty, characteristically red-blooded utterance firmly in the romantic virtuoso tradition and well worth getting to know. Bliss intended the finale’s tenderly expansive andante sostenuto introduction to act as a counterbalance to the central Scherzo, while the superbly idiomatic solo part was tailored for Campoli’s golden tone and jaw-dropping spiccato. Lydia Mordkovitch may not match the dedicatee for technical security (her tuning isn’t always spot-on) or unruffled elegance, but she responds with unflagging conviction and her customary no-holds-barred passion and receives alert, warm-hearted support. The sizeable cut authorised by Bliss at 1 before fig 30 (5'01") in the Scherzo is ignored. Glowing sound and realistic balance are further plus points.

A Colour Symphony has not lacked noteworthy advocacy down the years, and Hickox’s swells the number of versions I’ve encountered to a healthy half-dozen. Most enjoyable it is, too: observant, affectionately shaped and often very beautiful. The flashing Scherzo is uncommonly agile – though tuttis don’t pack a punch the way they do in Groves’s spectacularly ripe 1977 Abbey Road production – and listen out for some ravishing solo contributions in the seductively syncopated slow movement. The fugal finale can sometimes outstay its welcome but not here, its climactic peak (underpinned by the insistent volley of six timpani) thrillingly captured by the Chandos engineers. Andrew Burn supplies the highly readable notes and, minor niggles aside, this makes an attractive and valuable coupling.