Dance Poem

Frank Bridge’s evocative Dance Poem for orchestra (1913) is a crucial work in his output. As well as the arresting themes and vivid orchestral colours that typify this fascinating composer’s early work, we also find a more concentrated logic of symphonic development. Each of the six sections of this 15-minute symphonic waltz conveys the emotions expressed in a dancer’s movements. The mosaic of flexible motivic shapes, supported by an increased richness of harmonic vocabulary and the greater refinement of orchestral gesture, recall Debussy’s Jeux and Ravel’s La Valse.