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This work was commissioned for the only virtuoso string orchestra in Britain at the time, the Boyd Neel Chamber Orchestra. They had been invited to play at the Salzburg Festival of 1937, on the condition that they bring a work by a British composer. Neel, having been impressed by the speed and efficiency of Britten's compositional process, approached him with the idea. Neel received the work a mere ten days later.
Britten used the opportunity of this commission to show his loyalty to his former composition teacher. Using the theme from Bridge's early Idyll No. 2 for string quartet, Britten managed to instill the work with a broad range of European influences, including Bartók, Stravinsky, and Schoenberg, three composers for which Bridge and Britten had shared an unfashionable affinity.
Bridge's early work had been full of very singable "English" music, but later he broke from this tradition and became more experimental; the Variations were a nod to Bridge for his perseverance. Each variation bears a title depicting some aspect of Bridge that Britten wanted to illustrate, i.e. "his integrity," "his energy," "his gaiety," and so forth, and each variation attempts to demonstrate that aspect of Bridge which is contained in the chosen theme. The piece is a good example of Britten's useful mastery of craft, and of his ability to pinpoint the essential elements of a tune.
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