Frank Bridge's Quartet No. 2, which received a Cobbett prize in 1915, stands with the Cello Sonata (1913-17) as the first sizeable chamber composition of his maturity. Remarkable further stylistic developments of course lay ahead, as is hinted by some turns of melodic phraseology, and if this music is still romantic in attitude, the harmony is more chromatic than that of Quartet No. 1. There are three quick movements, although the central Allegro vivo combines, Brahms-like, Scherzo and slow movement, and the finale has a molto adagio introduction. The music is tightly knit, and convincingly so, there being audible motivic relationships between the themes, and ideas from the first movement reappearing in the last. This is united with a highly accomplished control of structure, as in the initial Allegro ben moderato's modified sonata form, or in the variational central section of the second movement which at the same time has a ternary aspect. A fine digital recording makes the beautifully flexible part-writing wholly apparent, and the performance is an accomplished one. Indeed, the Delme Quartet plays considerably better here than at a number of London concerts at which I have heard them in recent years.
The other pieces on this LP are not at the same level, and perhaps would not find their way into quartet programmes today. But these settings of popular traditional melodies display imaginative invention and, as ever with Bridge, splendid craftsmanship.'