THE period after the retrospective works of 1912 is one of experimentation and stylistic expansion. This takes place primarily in the orchestral and piano music, genres whose direct expression and simple structural outlines were clearly felt to be more suitable to the exploration of new areas than the weighty forms and technical demands of chamber music, and the production of substantial chamber works is reduced noticeably during the experimental phase from 1913 to 1925. The increased emphasis on orchestral music further reflects Bridge's ambitions as a conductor, a strand of his career that continued to develop throughout this period, although it did not blossom fully in the way he had hoped.

One of the principal motivations in pursuing a career as a conductor was Bridge's desire to reduce his workload as an instrumentalist. As we saw in the previous chapter, his music benefited from the connections he made in this capacity, but he gradually became concerned that his prominence as a performer could taint the critical reception of his music, increasing the likelihood of its being seen as well written but lacking personality. In the intensifying modernism of Bridge's output, critics were prone to interpret elements of which they disapproved as renewed evidence of facility, a lack of backbone, and indeed of inferior expressiveness, as many contemporary critics held most modernism to be inherently inexpressive. Although he usually met such negative responses to his music with resignation, they could provoke his indignation, for instance here in his response to a 1921 Times Literary Supplement article that continued a growing trend of dismissive press:

By this time, Bridge had already reduced his activities as a performer, not least due to the problem of image; his wife Ethel commented in a letter to Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge of the following year: