Hyperion Records

Frank Bridge’s arrangement of the serene chorale setting Komm, süsser Tod BWV478, from the Schemelli Gesangbuch, which he made in June 1931, is relatively restrained and essentialized in its approach to Bach’s original, apart from the gradations of the dynamics and the ‘pianistic’ arpeggios of the Poco maestoso central section which gradually become fulsome harped chords. In 1936 Bridge made a version of this transcription for string orchestra, giving it the title Todessehnsucht (‘Longing for death’).

from notes by Calum MacDonald © 2010