
The Cello Sonata that Frank Bridge completed in 1917 was the first in the magnificent series of works that form the core of his still underrated achievement, and the bridge between the Edwardian good manners of his early style, exemplified in this Nash Ensemble collection by the Phantasy Piano Quartet of 1910 and four string-quartet arrangements of British and Irish folk tunes, and the modernist-tinged unease of his greatest music. The sonata receives a wonderfully searching performance from Paul Watkins and Ian Brown, complemented by Marianne Thorsen's account, again with Brown, of the Violin Sonata of 1932. By then, Bridge's mature style was fully formed, with its conciseness and thematic economy; the earlier lyricism is there, but as just one part of an expressive web. Thorsen and Brown catch those moodswings perfectly.
