Lament for piano, arranged for string orchestra (1915)
English String Orchestra conducted by William Boughton
Frank Bridge's early works follow in the late-Romantic tradition of Brahms; but then, partly triggered by his abhorrence of the horrors of the First World War, his music became troubled, intense and chromatic until it rubbed shoulders with the European avant-garde, such as Berg.
This later style is foreshadowed by the short Lament for strings composed in a day in response to a tragic victim of the war. The dedication is poignant in its terseness: 'To Catherine, aged 9, Lusitania 1915', and in a mere five minutes Bridge creates a threnody of stark intensity.
