Bridge, Frank: Sonata for Piano

First performed on 15th October 1925 by Myra Hess, Frank Bridge’s Piano Sonata is a turbulent work that represents not only the keen musical mind of the creator of the third and fourth string quartets, but also, in its dedication to the memory of a promising young musician killed on the Western Front, his sorrow and outrage at the carnage of the First World War. It is also among the most striking contributions of any British composer to the repertoire of twentieth-century piano music cast in this traditional form, alongside examples by John Ireland, Arnold Bax and Arthur Bliss. Begun in 1922, it may be that its tough language was inspired in part by his friendship with the American heiress Mrs Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, a generous patron not only of Bridge but also of other avant-garde figures including Bartók and Schoenberg – composers whose influence seems present behind the notes, though without in any way inhibiting their originality.