Nice is the painting of Arthur Bliss' house, built in 1935 (see CD front). Bliss' Music for Strings dates from the same year. And so this CD contains a whole programme of music for string orchestra from the 1930s. The exception is Frank Bridge's modest Lament, which dates from the First World War. The eve of the next world war is hauntingly evoked in the final movement of Lennox Berkeley's Serenade
… for Strings. And yet the opening movement of this Serenade is as fresh as a spring breeze. Berkeley completed the Serenade in 1939 when he was living with Benjamin Britten in Snape Maltings. Britten was only in his early twenties when he completed his magnificent Variations Op.10, on a theme by his teacher Frank Bridge. Choreographer Hans van Manen used them for a ballet in 2005. (HJ)more
