Sir Arthur Bliss (1891-1975)
Miracle in the Gorbals, F6 (1944)
Metamorphic Variations, F122 (1972)
BBC Philharmonic/Michael Seal
rec. 2025, MediaCityUK, Salford, Manchester, UK
Premiere complete recording (Variations)
Chandos CHSA5370 SACD [80]
How good it is to welcome a disc of new recordings of music by Sir Arthur Bliss in the year that we mark the 50th anniversary of his death. Moreover, the importance of the disc is further enhanced because it presents the first-ever recording of his late orchestral work Metamorphic Variations in its complete version.
I have two recordings of that work: the premiere recording by what was then the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra under Barry Wordsworth, made in January 1991 (review); and a 2009 recording in which the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra was conducted by David Lloyd-Jones (review). In the booklet, Andrew Burn mentions a third commercial recording. I suspect he’s referring to a 1975 performance by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Vernon Handley which was issued on the now-defunct BBC Radio Classics label; I’ve only recently acquired a copy of that version. I wasn’t aware, though, until I read Burn’s notes that none of these recordings present Bliss’s full score. I’ll summarise what is said in the notes. When Metamorphic Variations was being rehearsed for its first performance by the LSO and Handley in 1973 it was decided to cut two of the work’s sixteen sections. These cuts were retained for all the subsequent performances of the work and it was not until Michael Seal and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra gave a performance in February 2025, the day before they made this recording, that the full version of the score was ever performed. It seems that Bliss himself was ambivalent about the cuts; Andrew Burn suggests he may have felt that the original score was a bit too long, yet when the full score was published the two movements were printed as an appendix, leaving it to the discretion of the conductor whether or not to include them.
The movements in question come between movements III and IV of the score which has hitherto been played. They are, respectively ‘Contrasts’ [2:52] and ‘Children’s March’ [2:23]. So, we have just over five minutes of previously unknown music; their inclusion largely explains why Michael Seal’s performance plays for 43:43, whereas, for example, the Wordsworth performance takes 37:40 and the Lloyd-Jones version lasts for 38:49; Handley takes less time than either, coming in at just over 35 minutes. The cuts are not mentioned in the notes accompanying any of the three earlier recordings, though I see that Paul Spicer mentioned them in his excellent biography of the composer (review). I’ll comment more on the previously unheard music in a moment.
Bliss was spurred to write this late major work by the abstract paintings of his longstanding friend, George Dannatt (1915-2009) and specifically by his triptych, Tantris, which I believe was unfinished at the time Bliss saw it. Incidentally, Naxos reproduced part of this work of art on the cover of their CD; in so doing, I think they stole something of a march on Chandos. It’s an abstract painting – I don’t pretend to understand what I see on the Naxos cover – and it prompted Bliss to compose his most substantial piece of abstract music.
As Andrew Burn very helpfully points out, we hear the three key pieces of thematic material in the opening section, entitled ‘Elements’. These consist of an extended oboe cantilena, heard almost immediately, a two-bar phrase played first by the horns and then by the strings, and finally what Burn describes as “a taut, dissonant chordal cluster, revealed very slowly as a note-by-note descent on woodwind and muted horns”. This latter element is magical; it gives me the impression of a slow-motion waterfall. Thereafter, Bliss subjects these elements of musical material to s substantial and very inventive set of variations. Looking back, I see that when I reviewed the Lloyd-Jones recording I said that I didn’t find the work’s thematic material all that memorable; in consequence, it was hard to appreciate the variations in terms of the compositional skill that Bliss deploys in varying his themes. (That. I suggested, was in contrast to the Meditations on a Theme of John Blow, where one can easily relate what one is hearing to the principal theme.) Subjectively, I still find this a weakness in Metamorphic Variations. However, the score has compensating strengths. One of these is the resourcefulness of Bliss’s invention in each of the individual movements; these are all in marked contrast to each other and imaginatively conceived. Another great strength of the work lies in the excellent and colourful orchestration. Bliss was always a masterly orchestrator and his skill at using the modern symphony orchestra to best effect is consistently on display here. So, for example, we find passages of great delicacy, such as ‘Cool Interlude’ with its delicately liquid scoring, marvellously played here, or ‘Duet’ which features excellent, characterful violin and cello solos. On the other hand, there’s the spiky, very energetic music of ‘Assertion’ and the grand ceremonial music at the start of the concluding section, ‘Affirmation’.
There are several other examples of masterly orchestration. One such is the highly atmospheric ‘Speculation’ where Bliss makes very inventive use of quiet trills on a variety of instruments to etch in what Andrew Burn justly calls a “mysterious landscape”. In complete contrast, and later on in the work, ‘Funeral Processions’ is very impressive. Here, the writing is extremely powerful and the use of trumpets at first, followed by horns, with everything underpinned by pounding drums, makes one very much aware that deep emotions are being expressed. Andrew Burn suggests, plausibly, I think, that Bliss may here be commemorating in music for one last time his brother Kennard, a victim of World War I whom Bliss had memorialised in Morning Heroes.
What of the two reinstated movements? The first of these, ‘Contrasts’ is drawn, Andrew Burn tells us, from the third of the thematic elements – the descending woodwind material. In this variation we hear a background of hushed string chords disrupted periodically by fragmentary material played on woodwinds. It’s all very atmospheric, especially when a vibraphone is brought into the scoring later on. ‘Children’s March’ is interesting in that it starts off quite innocently but then, as the brass become involved, the tone becomes much more serious; I wonder if Bliss had in mind unruly children at this point? Andrew Burn fairly describes this variation as “sinisterly effective”. He wonders why Bliss “could have excised such a brilliant cameo”; I agree. It’s notable, too, that the two cut variations slide seamlessly into their place in the score as a whole. Burn speculates that the excision decision was taken for pragmatic reasons; there was insufficient rehearsal time prior to the premiere. One wonders why Bliss didn’t reinstate the music thereafter. I’m very glad that Micheal Seal has now done that and while I doubt Metamorphic Variations will ever become a repertoire piece I hope that whenever it is performed in the future it will always be in its complete form.
Further value is added to this disc because Michael Seal lets us hear the full score of Bliss’s ballet Miracle in the Gorbals. Bliss extracted a suite from the ballet score and this has been recorded more than once: I know of recordings by Paavo Berglund and by Bliss himself (review). However, the suite plays for about 23 minutes, whereas Micheal Seal’s performance of the complete ballet takes 36:44; on that basis, the suite sacrifices quite a lot of music. So far as I know, there is only one recording of the complete ballet currently in the catalogue, by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Christopher Lyndon-Gee (Naxos 8.553698); I’ve never heard that.
Miracle in the Gorbals gave Bliss another opportunity to work with Robert Helpmann (1909-1986), who had danced the part of the Red King in Checkmate (1937). This time Helpmann was the choreographer, as he would also be for Adam Zero (1946). The scenario for Miracle in the Gorbals was devised by the theatre director Michael Benthall (1919-1974); Benthall later devised the scenario for Adam Zero. As Ben Earle describes it in his booklet essay, the scenario for the present ballet revolves around the appearance of a Christ-like character (the Stranger) in what was then the slum area of Glasgow, the Gorbals. The Stranger successfully revives a Girl who had committed suicide in the River Clyde. Despite the acclaim that the Stranger receives from the locals as a result, an Official is jealous and seeks to compromise him with the aid of a local prostitute. When that fails, the Official arranges for a local razor gang to slash the Stranger to death; I presume that’s what is happening in the picture, taken from the 1944 Sadler’s Wells Ballet’s original production which Chandos reproduce on the cover of the booklet.
It’s a lurid tale which Bliss illustrated with powerful, dramatic music. Right from the start, the music casts a suspenseful spell in the Overture. Here, the vivid nature of the Chandos recording is a great asset; the crucial timpani interjections ring out with great realism. The following music depicting The Street really bustles in this performance. A little later, though, Bliss lightens things, at least briefly, in the music depicting The Lovers; hereabouts, there’s a real lightness of touch and the solo flute contributions are most attractive. There’s increasing tension in the music which accompanies the discovery of the Suicide’s body; Seal and the orchestra bring this off really well. The Stranger appears on the scene; Bliss’s music leaves us in no doubt, even when we can’t see the onstage action, that this is a character with unusual presence. After the Stranger has brought the Girl back to life there’s a Dance of Deliverance. Ben Earle draws attention to Bliss’s decision to depict this with music that is “a full-blown example of symphonic jazz”, complete with big-band brass effects, syncopated rhythms and furiously drumming tom-toms. I have to say that I’ve heard better examples of symphonic jazz – Bliss’s version is just a bit too buttoned up – but the colourful music still expresses general joyfulness. Shortly afterwards there is an Intermezzo section which provides a brief but much-needed respite from the drama. At first the episode features limpid music which is scored – and here played – with great delicacy; after a while, the mood becomes rather more upbeat, with a solo trumpet to the fore. As the ballet moves towards its dénouement, the short episode of the Slander Campaign has evident malice; the BBC Philharmonic project this section keenly. The end of the ballet comes with the Killing of the Stranger. Chandos give us all the tempo indications in the track list; from this I learned that the marking for the start of this final section is Allegro feroce. To be honest, the music takes a short while to whip up to feroce – I’m sure this isn’t the fault of the players – but I suspect that what is happening onstage is that the gang is initially confronting and menacing the Stranger before physically attacking him. Bliss builds the tension with assurance and one is left in no doubt that an awful assault is taking place until dreadful chords (around 2:20) depict the striking of the fatal blows. Bliss then draws the ballet to a conclusion by means of a sorrowful reprise of some of the opening music from the Overture.
There’s an awful lot packed into this tragic tale over the course of just under 37 minutes. Both the scenario and the music with which Bliss illustrated it are taut and dramatic. The Suite may be a convenient way to experience in the concert hall some key episodes from the ballet but now that I have a version of the complete score in my collection this, I’m sure, will be my preferred way to experience Miracle in the Gorbals in the future.
A moment ago, I described the ballet as taut and dramatic. That description equally applies to the performance by the BBC Philharmonic and Michael Seal. True, they are very successful in the more delicate passages, but it’s the red-blooded approach to Bliss’s many dramatic episodes that particularly lodge in the memory. In this endeavour they’re helped greatly by the outstandingly vivid Chandos SACD sound, which is detailed and impactful. The recording and performance of the Metamorphic Variations are equally superb.
Chandos have documented this release extremely well. As I’ve indicated, the essays by Andrew Burn and Ben Earle are excellent in all respects. In addition, the booklet contains a detailed and invaluable synopsis of Miracle in the Gorbals.
This is an important and excellent release. All admirers of the music of Sir Arthur Bliss should lose no time in acquiring a copy.
John Quinn
Other review: Jonathan Woolf (November 2025)
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