String Quartet in B flat (1941) played by the Aeolian Quartet
Bliss's Quartet was written for \Mrs. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge and first performed at the University of California in 1941 by the Pro Arte Quartet. \Ralph Hill says : ' It is an outstanding work-so outstanding that I consider it surpasses any string quartet written during the last twenty years by a British comnpser. The most striking qualities of the music are an almost Mozartian clarity of form and a simplicity of style.'