This disc is just one of many that made Hyperion’s initial offerings so exciting. The Phantasie Trio and Piano Quartet belong to Bridge’s early period and display the excellent craftsmanship and slightly impersonal late-Romantic harmonic and melodic style typical of the young composer. The Second Trio, though, is another matter altogether, a masterpiece of contemporary music written in a freely dissonant idiom, haunting in its imaginative use of sonority. Just listen to the icy sounds of the work’s opening and you’ll be inexorably drawn into its lonely, passionate sound world. Hopefully, reissue at mid-price of this superbly performed and recorded music will win many new friends for a composer who, because of his status as a musical “outsider” on reaching artistic maturity, may never be a popular favorite, but whose individuality, talent, and mastery are beyond question. [12/25/2001]
