{"product_id":"bliss-checkmate-melee-fantasque","title":"BLISS: Checkmate \/ Melee Fantasque","description":"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-size:12pt\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan\u003eWith this disc, Naxos completes its survey of ballet scores by Sir Arthur Bliss (1891?1975). Previously released were \u003c\/span\u003e  \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eAdam Zero,\u003c\/span\u003e  \u003cspan\u003e generously coupled with Bliss?s \u003c\/span\u003e  \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eA Colour Symphony\u003c\/span\u003e  \u003cspan\u003e in performances by the English Northern Philharmonia under David Lloyd-Jones (8.553460), and \u003c\/span\u003e  \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eMiracle in the Gorbals,\u003c\/span\u003e  \u003cspan\u003e coupled with music from the film \u003c\/span\u003e  \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eThings to Come\u003c\/span\u003e  \u003cspan\u003e and \u003c\/span\u003e  \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eDiscourse for Orchestra,\u003c\/span\u003e  \u003cspan\u003e with Christopher Lyndon-Gee conducting the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (8.553698). In each case, Naxos presents, for the first time, the full ballet scores rather than suites. Much as I have enjoyed recordings of suites from all three ballets, the music is of such a quality, and so symphonic as well as dramatic in concept, that listening to the suites is rather like hearing an abridged Mahler First, or excerpts from Strauss?s \u003c\/span\u003e  \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eDon Quixote:\u003c\/span\u003e  \u003cspan\u003e pleasant, but unsatisfactory. The \u003c\/span\u003e  \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eCheckmate \u003c\/span\u003e  \u003cspan\u003eSuite recordings I own on CD?Vernon Handley and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic on EMI (1978) and Handley again with the Ulster Orchestra on Chandos (1986)?are excellent as to performance and recording, but sadly incomplete. The suite is the same in both, consisting of six of the first seven numbers, but none of the next five, which include the longest and most dramatic movements in the score. Both conclude with an abbreviated version of the finale.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eCheckmate\u003c\/span\u003e  \u003cspan\u003e tells a grim story, fantastic in conception: Love and Death play a game of chess, but the pieces are human, and not endowed with equal powers. The Black Queen is beautiful, evil, and powerful; neither the Red King nor his Queen can stand against her. The Red Knight can, but falls under the Black Queen?s enchantment long enough for her to slay him. Naxos provides excellent notes by Andrew Burn, so one can follow this drama to its tragic dénouement. \u003c\/span\u003e  \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eCheckmate\u003c\/span\u003e  \u003cspan\u003e had its premiere in Paris in 1937; like the First Symphony of William Walton and the Fourth of Vaughan Williams, Bliss?s score seems especially appropriate to the times. The much shorter \u003c\/span\u003e  \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eMêlée fantasque\u003c\/span\u003e  \u003cspan\u003e (1921), while not exactly cheerful, seems by contrast a robustly optimistic piece, even while memorializing a deceased friend and collaborator, the painter Claude Lovat Fraser.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan\u003eThe Scottish Orchestra plays with its usual energy and brilliance, and the sound is vivid, colorful, and, where appropriate, seismic. What a pleasure, at last to hear the complete \u003c\/span\u003e  \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eCheckmate!\u003c\/span\u003e  \u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan style=\"font-weight:bold\"\u003eFANFARE: Robert McColley\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Naxos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":49705705832728,"sku":"747313264124","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0687\/4346\/3192\/files\/762276.jpg?v=1777570385","url":"https:\/\/hbdirect.com\/products\/bliss-checkmate-melee-fantasque","provider":"HBDirect","version":"1.0","type":"link"}