Frank Bridge Dramatic Fantasia

[eschiss1]

I thought this was a piano work- I have a recording of it in this form- but there is an upcoming performance of a "Dramatic Fantasia" by Bridge by a string quartet (together with works by Elgar, Britten and Birtwhistle) on November 14 in Cambridge. Not that I can go, but does anyone know if this is the same work arranged for string quartet (the original wasn't published by the composer (I have no idea how complete it is, either) and perhaps someone decided that Bridge might have been aiming for a quartet that he only wrote out in (mostly?) full? piano score- heck if I know?...) -

or perhaps an entirely different work with the same title? I am no one's idea of a Bridge expert (some puns suggest themselves here that need to be carefully, carefully avoided.  No... Trumped, even.)

[petershott@btinternet.com]

I'm stumped. Yes, the Dramatic Fantasia is certainly a work for piano. It was apparently written ca. 1906 (thus an early work), but remained in the possession of one Florence Smith, a fellow RCM student of Bridge. I don't know anything about first or public performances, but the work was 'discovered' when Smith died in the mid-1970s.

I don't have a score (it is published), but from recordings it sounds very much a work for piano - and not sketches for anything else (I can't imagine any arrangement for string quartet - but then I'm not a composer).

Lucky piece it is, for it has been recorded three times in recent years: Christopher Langdown (Divine Art), Mark Bebbington (Somm) and Anthony Goldstone (Divine Art again). A good piece in my opinion.

Do you know the name of the Quartet performing it in Cambridge? (And I say "it" because I'm not aware of Bridge composing another work with the same name - that would be improbable). I know members of a few Quartets who occasionally play Bridge - but I've never come across rumours or tales of anyone arranging this early piano work for string quartet.

I don't suppose the St Qt could be the Endellion? They are often in Cambridge, and only a couple of weeks ago I was talking to one of them about the Bridge quartets. But nothing about this work was mentioned or a forthcoming concert in Cambridge. (Probably irrelevant.)

Apologies - can't help more. But maybe I could sniff out something in Cambridge. I assume you mean Cambridge, England!

[eschiss1]

I have Peter Jacobs' recording on Continuum, I think. It's the Escher quartet that's performing it in, I think, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge England , Nov. 14.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Oops Eric. The Escher Qt are playing Bridge's early (1905) Phantasie Quartet in F minor. It may well be dramatic - but quite distinct from the piano work.

Britten 3 and the Elgar Qt are also on the programme. Should be good, and I've just sent off for a ticket!

[eschiss1]

Hrm. Ok, typo then. I should have checked their program I've tried to inform BachTrack of an error before, with -- surmountable difficulties, but it seems better if done by informing the quartet (which- well, they or the concert hall, one of them) submits the upcoming program to the site... I'll try that later, I think...