2025 marks the 50^th anniversary of the death of Sir Arthur Bliss. In recognition of this, the Bliss Trust, in collaboration with the Arthur Bliss Society, has been encouraging orchestras, festivals, choral societies, concert promoting organisations, ensembles and individual artists over the 2024–25 and 2025–26 seasons to perform works by the composer with the aim of achieving 50 performances during the year, of around 25 works. They have gone far beyond this original aim, with 217 performances currently programmed with 57 of his works represented.

Bliss has been a featured composer at the Three Choirs, Ryedale, Leamington, English Music, North Yorks, Bradfield and Knaresborough festivals, as well as at the Proms, Ludlow English Song Weekend and Spitalfields Festival. The ballet Checkmate is being staged by the Sarasota Ballet, and his music is performed by orchestras including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, New London Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the Philharmonia. A wide host of ensembles, conductors, artists and many non-professional orchestras have also performed, and will continue to perform Bliss’ work throughout the anniversary.

Among the wide range of Bliss works being performed are the ballet Checkmate, choral and orchestral Morning Heroes, The Beatitudes, Mary of Magdala, and Pastoral;  the orchestral Checkmate concert suite, Metamorphic Variations, Music for Strings, Piano and Cello Concertos, Things to Come, and ensemble and instrumental works including his Clarinet Quintet, Masks, Triptych, and vocal works Elegiac Sonnet and A Knot of Riddles.

 

Highlights of the anniversary include: 

February 26, 2025: First complete performance of Bliss’s Metamorphic Variations and Chandos recording. Michael Seal conducted the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in the first complete performance of Bliss’s last orchestral work, Metamorphic Variations with the two variations cut at the premiere and subsequent three performances restored, at the Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham on February 26. Following the performance the work was recorded, together with the complete ballet score for Miracle in the Gorbals for Chandos Records.

March 27, 2025: On the actual anniversary of Bliss’s death, a celebration of the composer’s music was presented at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire with concerts and talks curated by Mark Bebbington.

April 16, 2025: Piano Concerto, performed by Peter Donohoe and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Martyn Brabbins at Cadogan Hall. 

May 3-5, 2025, Leamington Festival: Performances of the Clarinet Quintet, Piano Quartet, Masks, Triptych and Siege by Emma Johnson, Carducci Quartet, Simon Callaghan, Sacconi Quartet, Roderick Williams, Andrew West and Mark Bebbington.

May 8, 2025: Morning Heroes, performed by The London Chorus, New London Orchestra, with Petroc Trelawny, Orator, conducted by Adrian Brown at Holy Trinity, Sloane Square.

May 23, 2025, English Music Festival: Cello Concerto, performed by Raphael Wallfisch and the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Martin Yates, Dorchester Abbey.

July 18/September 7, 2025: Bliss at the Proms
The Proms season opened  with Bliss’ Birthday Fanfare for Sir Henry Wood on July 18, and The Beatitudes is performed by Elizabeth Watts, Laurence Kilsby, the BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sakari Oramo on September 7.

July 19, 2025: Premiere of Bliss’ Viola Concerto (his Viola Sonata) orchestrated by Philip Wilby.
After the premiere of the Viola Sonata (dedicated to Lionel Tertis), Bliss planned to orchestrate the work but never did so. To mark the anniversary, the Bliss Trust and the Arthur Bliss Society commissioned Philip Wilby to orchestrate the work which was premiered during the Ryedale Festival on July 19 with Timothy Ridout as soloist, the Orchestra of Opera North, conducted by Tom Fetherstonhaugh.

July 26-August 2, 2025: Bliss at the Three Choirs Festival
The Festival included Bliss’ cantata Mary of Magdala which was premiered at the Worcester Festival in 1963, conducted by the composer, as well as the Clarinet Quintet, Music for Strings, the piano works Masks, Triptych, Fun and Games, and a selection of his songs.

September 13-14, 2025: National Brass Band Championships 2025
Three arrangements of music by Bliss are test pieces for Sections 1 – 4 finals of the 2025 National Brass Band Championships including Eric Ball’s arrangement of the Checkmate suite, and Robert Childs Suite from Adam Zero. September 13-14, Cheltenham Racecourse.

September 17-18, 2025: Organised by the Arthur Bliss Society, this midweek event held over two days is taking place at Pembroke College, of which Bliss was a member when at Cambridge from 1910 to 1913.

October 17-22, 2025: John Wilson conducts the Sinfonia of London in two performances of Music for Strings at the Glasshouse, Gateshead (17 October), Perth Theatre and Concert Hall (October 18), Sands Centre, Carlisle (October 19) and the Barbican, London (22 October).

November 8, 2025: Cello Concerto in Britten Weekend at Snape Maltings. Performed by Raphael Wallfisch, English Chamber Orchestra and Łukasz Borowicz.

November 8, 2025: Second performance of the Viola Concerto with David Aspin, Sinfonia of Leeds and David Greed. St Edmund’s Church, Leeds.

November 15, 2025: Piano Concerto, soloist TBA, Northampton Symphony Orchestra.

May 1&2, 2026: Checkmate staged by Sarasota Ballet. Sarasota Opera House, Florida, USA.