{"product_id":"bliss-conducts-bliss-violin-concerto-a-colour-symphony-1955-pasc727","title":"BLISS conducts Bliss: Violin Concerto, A Colour Symphony (1955) - PASC727","description":"overviewfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 18px;\"\u003eBLISS \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 18px;\"\u003eViolin Concerto\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 18px;\"\u003eBLISS \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 18px;\"\u003eA Colour Symphony\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 12px;\"\u003eStudio recordings, 1955\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 12px;\"\u003eTotal duration: 69:02\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 16px;\"\u003eAlfredo Campoli\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 16px;\"\u003e, violin\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 16px;\"\u003eLondon Philharmonic Orchestra\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 16px;\"\u003eLondon Symphony Orchestra\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 16px;\"\u003econducted by \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 16px;\"\u003eSir Arthur Bliss\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9review_titlefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fReview578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9review_quotefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fA worthy addition to the Bliss catalogue: two important works, performed under the baton of the composer. Enthusiasts will be delighted to have this superb restoration578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9review_bodyfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f\u003cp\u003eThere have been several reissues of Arthur Bliss’s Violin Concerto and A Colour Symphony , conducted by the composer. (I was introduced to both on the old Decca Eclipse label; it had remarkable covers, usually depicting a National Trust property.) These date from the early 1970s. The original monaural recordings were made in November 1955.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA Colour Symphony was Bliss’s first major orchestral work; he revised it a decade later. It was premiered at the Gloucester Three Choirs Festival on 7 September 1922, to mixed reviews.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe symphony, inspired by the symbolic meanings of colours in heraldry, has four movements: Purple, Red, Blue and Green . Each embodies characteristics associated with its respective color, such as royalty and death for Purple, and courage and magic for Red.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI think that colours and their connection to the listener’s enjoyment of the symphony can be safely ignored. Just enjoy it as a symphony with four contrasting movements “full of vitality and beauty”. Bliss and the LSO give an authoritative account, which holds the attention from the first note to the last.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne contemporary critic of the original LP (Decca, LXT 5170), impressed by the “exhilarating performance”, considered that “the time is long overdue for this full-blooded music to take its proper place in the concert hall beside Elgar and Vaughan Williams”. His prophecy was never to be. The last time the work was played at a Promenade Concert was in 2006.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo be sure, there are other outstanding recordings of A Colour Symphony : by Vernon Handley and the Ulster Orchestra, (Chandos 8503, 1987), David Lloyd-Jones and the English Northern Philharmonic Orchestra (Naxos 8.533460, 1996) and Richard Hickox and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (Chandoc 10380, 2006). Even so, there is an inherent value in having Bliss’s own interpretation to hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt the same time, Arthur Bliss recorded his Violin Concerto and the now largely forgotten Theme and Cadenza . This time the orchestra was the London Philharmonic with the violin soloist, the Italian-born Alfredo Campoli. The LP was issued in April 1956 on Decca LXT 5166.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBliss wrote his forty-minute Violin Concerto at a time of considerable political tension in Europe. There are three movements: Allegro ma non troppo , Vivo – tranquillo and Introduzione (Andante); Allegro deciso in modo zingaro) . The overall mood of the piece is a studied contrast between lyrical beauty and dramatic passion, which seems to echo the age.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCampoli gives a splendid account of the concerto which gives him little opportunity for relaxation. He dominates the proceedings from the first to the last, playing with refinement and proficiency. There is a warmth of tone that is often beguiling. The concerto was premiered in 1939 by the present soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnother recording of Bliss’s Violin Concerto, in 1968, once again featured Campoli and the composer but with the BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC Classics 15656 91842, 1996). I have not heard this album. Two other recordings of the concerto have been released: by Lydia Mordkovitch with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Richard Hickox (Chandos 10380, 2006) and Lorraine McAslan and the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Martin Yates (Dutton Epoch, CDLX 7342, 2017).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe work is a significant contribution to the genre. Alongside Edward Elgar’s (1910) and William Walton’s (1939) pieces, Bliss’s essay is the third pillar of the triumvirate of great Violin Concertos composed by an Englishman. Sadly, it is rarely heard in the concert hall. Its last outing at the Proms was on 3 August 1955.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe present remastering is due to Andrew Rose, who took the original monaural edits and “dusted them down a little, [to] bring greater space and finer tone to both recordings, further enhancing two excellent examples of Decca’s mid-fifties output”. He also supplied the liner notes, which, if I am honest, are a little bit lacking. Basically, it is a concatenation of two contemporary reviews from The Gramophone magazine , with a concluding comment.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis disc is a worthy addition to the Bliss catalogue: two important works, performed under the baton of the composer. Enthusiasts will be delighted to have this superb restoration.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn France\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9main_samplefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fsamples\/PASC727.mp3578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_labelfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fProducer's Note578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_typefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fcontent578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_contentfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f\u003cp\u003e\nThe main work … on this disc is the Concerto, commissioned by the B.B.C.\nand first played at the Royal Festival Hall in May of last year with\nCampoli (to whom it is dedicated) as soloist. The performance here is a fine\none, and Decca have produced for it one of their very best recordings, of\ngreat clarity but warm tone. The concerto itself is as yet too little known\nfor the musical world to have been able to assess its stature, and this\nrecording will therefore be of all the greater value. Personally, I find\nthe work among Bliss’s most effective, full of energy and nervous tension,\nin the composer’s most mordant vein, also with considerable lyricism, and\ncertainly brilliantly written for the soloist. Is it, perhaps, a little\nlong for its material in the first move­ment? The Scherzo is pithy, and the\nfinale unusual in structure, consisting of a slow introduction leading to\nan \u003cem\u003eAllegro deciso\u003c\/em\u003e in gipsy style. I look forward to becoming more\nfamiliar with this concerto through this admirable recording.\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\nLionel Salter, \u003cem\u003eThe Gramophone\u003c\/em\u003e, June 1956\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003eColour Symphony\u003c\/em\u003e was [Bliss’s] first large-scale orchestral\nwork, and was written for the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester in 1922:\nwith poetic justice, the orchestra chosen to record it now is that which\ngave the first performance on that occasion (are there, I wonder, any of the\nearly players till with it?). In the original score the movements bore,\nbeside the designations Purple, Red, Blue and Green, sub-titles relating\nthese colours to their heraldic sig­nificance (“ Purple, the colour of\namethysts, pageantry, royalty and death ”, etc.); but when Bliss revised\nthe symphony ten years later, he cut out this “programme” so that the music\nshould be listened to on its own terms. Heard to-day, in this full-blooded\nperformance under the composer, one is conscious of his disciplined\nexuberance at thirty years old, and of the distance he has travelled since:\nthere are moments never­theless — the dissonant syncopated passage in\n\u003cem\u003e\nRed,\n\u003c\/em\u003e\nthe “optimistic” second fugue in \u003cem\u003eGreen\u003c\/em\u003e— which point forward to his\nfully mature style.\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\nTo-day he would probably thin out the scoring (though I hope he would leave\nthe exciting six-timpani flourishes near the end): indeed, the tendency\ntowards a more clean-cut texture is already seen in the other work recorded\nhere, the \u003cem\u003eIntroduction and Allegro\u003c\/em\u003e dedicated to Stokowski (who\nconducted the first performance in 1927 in Philadelphia) … The composer\nsecures a convincing performance from the L.S.O., and the recording is\nperfectly good, if not quite in the same class as that of the Violin\nConcerto.\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\nLionel Salter, \u003cem\u003eThe Gramophone\u003c\/em\u003e, August 1956\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLooking back some 69 years to the month of November 1955, when these two\nrecordings were made, it is hard to understand how Bliss came to conduct\ntwo different orchestras in his own works in the same month – for the same\nrecord company and at the same venue. It is something which has clearly\nconfused Decca in some of its later reissues, where artwork and texts have\nbeen both confused and, at times, incorrect!\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\nBoth were produced and engineered by Decca’s crack team of John Culshaw and\nKenneth Wilkinson, and the sound quality of the mono originals is excellent\nfor its day, even if better things were just around the corner for the\nLondon-based label. These XR-remastered Ambient Stereo issues have dusted\nthem down a little, bring greater space and finer tone to both recordings,\nfurther enhancing two excellent examples of Decca’s mid-fifties output.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAndrew Rose\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_cover_thumbnail1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_cover_thumbnail2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_cover_download_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample3_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample4_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample5_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample6_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_labelfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fFull Track Listing578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_typefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5ftrack_listing578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_contentfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 24px;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eBLISS \u003c\/b\u003econducts Bliss\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 18px;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eBLISS \u003c\/b\u003eConcerto for Violin and Orchestra, F.111\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14px;\"\u003e (1955)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1. 1st mvt. - Allegro ma non troppo - Più animato  (14:26)\u003cbr\u003e2. 2nd mvt. - Vivo - Tranquillo  (6:49)\u003cbr\u003e3. 3rd mvt. - Introduzione. Andante sostenuto - Allegro deciso in modo zingaro  (16:31)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCampoli, violin\u003cbr\u003eLondon Philharmonic Orchestra\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 12px;\"\u003eRecorded 9-11 November, 1955\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 18px;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eBLISS  \u003c\/b\u003eA Colour Symphony, F.106 \u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14px;\"\u003e(1921-22,rev.1932) \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e4. 1st mvt. - Purple  (6:39)\u003cbr\u003e5. 2nd mvt. - Red  (6:54)\u003cbr\u003e6. 3rd mvt. - Blue  (9:54)\u003cbr\u003e7. 4th mvt. - Green  (7:49)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLondon Symphony Orchestra\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 12px;\"\u003eRecorded 23-24 November, 1955\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 18px;\"\u003econducted by \u003cb\u003eSir Arthur Bliss\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eXR remastering by: Andrew Rose\u003cbr\u003eCover artwork based on a photograph of Bliss\u003cbr\u003eRecorded at Kingsway Hall, London\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTotal duration:  69:02\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_cover_thumbnail1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_cover_thumbnail2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_cover_download_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample3_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample4_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample5_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample6_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_labelfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fCover Art578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_typefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fcover_art578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_contentfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_cover_thumbnail1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fcovers\/thumbs\/PASC727.jpg578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_cover_thumbnail2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_cover_download_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fcovers\/PASC727.pdf578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample3_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample4_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample5_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample6_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f","brand":"Pristine Classical","offers":[{"title":"Ambient Stereo 24-bit FLAC","offer_id":44064747847770,"sku":"fjp1789304215547","price":11.32,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Ambient Stereo 16-bit FLAC","offer_id":44064747880538,"sku":"fev1789304215548","price":8.04,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"320kbps Ambient Stereo MP3","offer_id":44064747913306,"sku":"xaq1789304215549","price":6.26,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0726\/3807\/0874\/files\/bliss-conducts-bliss-violin-concerto-a-colour-symphony-1955---pasc727_1.jpg?v=1789304222","url":"https:\/\/vestorawear.shop\/products\/bliss-conducts-bliss-violin-concerto-a-colour-symphony-1955-pasc727","provider":"My Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}