Contemporary Irish String Quartets
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: John Kinsella, Ian Wilson, Walter Beckett, Brian Boydell
Label: Chandos
Magazine Review Date: 10/1994
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 65
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CHAN9295
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
String Quartet No. 3 |
John Kinsella, Composer
John Kinsella, Composer Vanbrugh Qt |
String Quartet No. 1, 'Winter's Edge' |
Ian Wilson, Composer
Ian Wilson, Composer Vanbrugh Qt |
String Quartet No. 1 |
Walter Beckett, Composer
Vanbrugh Qt Walter Beckett, Composer |
String Quartet No. 2 |
Brian Boydell, Composer
Brian Boydell, Composer Vanbrugh Qt |
Author:
Irish composers (unlike Irish writers) are not generally well known outside Ireland. Stanford and Maconchy are unusual in having achieved eminence in British musical life, but as English artists whose Irish origins are usually overlooked. In the case of Sean O'Riada, his most distinctive work was in folk-derived areas with few connections to classical traditions. Chandos's enterprise in issuing the present collection is therefore to be applauded, although it is ironic that no piece possesses any audibly Irish provenance.
Two of the composers, John Kinsella (b. 1932) and Brian Boydell (b. 1917), may be familiar from occasional broadcasts; Walter Beckett (b. 1914) and Ulsterman Ian Wilson (b. 1964) were both new to me. Kinsella's idiomatic Third Quartet (1978) is full of memorable ideas, but it took me a good half-dozen hearings before its intense logic became clear. Wilson'sWinter's Edge is the most advanced in language, though lacks expressive focus. Fired by an epistle of St Paul, the routine and the inspired are mixed equally during its not quite quarter-hour span. The poise of Beckett's First Quartet (1980) is in marked contrast; while the language—at first—seems rooted in the nineteenth century, the harmonies and form are definitely post-1900. Repeated listening has only reinforced my initial enthusiasm and together with Boydell's Second (1959) these are the best things on the disc, forming a fine, complementary pair. If none of these works is quite in the same league as (the Irish-resident) Simpson's Quartets Nos. 14 and 15 which the Vanbrugh recorded for Hyperion (7/93), they are still well worth investigating. Performances and recording are very good.'
Two of the composers, John Kinsella (b. 1932) and Brian Boydell (b. 1917), may be familiar from occasional broadcasts; Walter Beckett (b. 1914) and Ulsterman Ian Wilson (b. 1964) were both new to me. Kinsella's idiomatic Third Quartet (1978) is full of memorable ideas, but it took me a good half-dozen hearings before its intense logic became clear. Wilson's
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