Bax / Bliss: Oboe Quintets / Britten: Phantasy Quartet

Featuring

Gordon Hunt
Tale Quartet
Benjamin Britten
Sir Arnold Bax
Arthur Bliss

Did you know?

1/7

Historical Context

The three chamber works on this album were written between 1922 and 1932, a period when new compositional techniques from continental Europe were transforming British music.

Composer Biography

Bax, influenced by W.B. Yeats's 'The Wanderings of Usheen', developed a strong connection to Irish myth and folklore, even writing under the pseudonym Dermot O'Byrne.

Composer Biography

Frank Bridge, a composer who recognized Britten's precocious talent, became Britten's composition teacher in 1927 and encouraged free experimentation.

Performer Biography

Leon Goossens, an oboist, is the common link between the three works on this album; he was still in his twenties when Bax dedicated his Quintet to him in 1922.

Composer Biography

Benjamin Britten, one of the composers on this album, began composing at age five, with his earliest works attempting to depict everyday family events.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Arnold Bax, another composer featured, described himself as 'a brazen romantic' whose music was 'the expression of emotional states'.

Composition History

Arthur Bliss's Quintet for Oboe and Strings was commissioned by Mrs. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, a famous patroness of chamber music, for a festival in Venice in 1927.