William Walton - Piano Quartet; String Quartet (Maggini Quartet; Peter Donohoe)

Information

Composer: William Walton

1. String Quartet in A minor: I. Allegro
2. String Quartet in A minor: II. Presto
3. String Quartet in A minor: III. Lento
4. String Quartet in A minor: IV. Allegro molto
5. Piano Quartet in D minor: I. Allegramente
6. Piano Quartet in D minor: II. Allegro scherzando
7. Piano Quartet in D minor: III. Andante tranquillo
8. Piano Quartet in D minor: IV. Allegro molto

Peter Donohoe, piano
Maggini Quartet
Laurence Jackson, violin
David Angel, violin
Martin Outram, viola
Michal Kaznowski, cello

Date: 2000
Label: Naxos
https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.554646

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

Another superb recording of English music from the stylish Maggini Quartet

This disc of chamber music provides a splendid follow-up to the fine orchestral recordings already included in Naxos’s Walton series. The young players of the Maggini Quartet – who earlier recorded Britten, Elgar and Moeran for Naxos – give refined and powerful performances of both works. The opening of the 1947 String Quartet is presented in hushed intimacy, making the contrast all the greater when Walton’s richly lyrical writing emerges in full power. There is a tender, wistful quality here, which culminates in a rapt, intense account of the slow movement, where the world of late Beethoven comes much closer than most interpreters have appreciated. The poignancy of those two longer movements is then set against the clean bite of the second movement Scherzo and the brief hectic finale, with their clear and transparent textures. This is as fine a version as any – and like others in the series a splendid bargain, beautifully recorded.

With Peter Donohoe a powerful and incisive presence, and the Maggini Quartet again playing most persuasively, the early Piano Quartet – an astonishing achievement for a teenage composer – is also given a performance of high contrasts, enhanced by a refined recording which conveys genuine pianissimos that are free from highlighting. If, in the first three movements, the pentatonic writing gives little idea of the mature Walton to come, some characteristic rhythmic and other devices are already apparent. Even the pentatonicry suggests that the boy had been looking at the Howells Piano Quartet rather than any Vaughan Williams. It is in the finale that one gets the strongest Waltonian flavour in vigorously purposeful argument, though there the echoes are different, and Stravinsky’s Petrushka is an obvious influence. The only reservation is that, refined as the recording is, the piano is rather too forwardly balanced.

-- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone

More reviews:
ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 9 / SOUND QUALITY: 9
BBC Music Magazine  PERFORMANCE: ***** / SOUND: *****
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2000/june00/waltonquartets.htm
https://www.naxos.com/reviews/reviewslist.asp?catalogueid=8.554646&languageid=EN
https://www.amazon.com/Piano-Quartet-1921-String-1947/dp/B00004SSJB

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

William Walton (29 March 1902 – 8 March 1983) was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best-known works include Façade, the cantata Belshazzar's Feast, the Viola and Violin Concertos, and the First Symphony, which has had more than twenty recordings. Walton was a slow worker, painstakingly perfectionist, and his complete body of work across his long career is not large. His most popular compositions continue to be frequently performed in the twenty-first century, and almost all his works had been released on CD.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walton

***

The Maggini Quartet, formed in 1988, is a British string quartet. The Quartet's name derives from the famous 16th century Brescian violin maker Giovanni Paolo Maggini. Maggini Quartet is known for championing the British repertoire, and has made many CD recordings for publishers such as Naxos Records. In addition to their concert activity, the members of the Quartet have an international reputation as chamber music coaches. Its current members are Julian Leaper (violin 1), Ciaran McCabe (violin 2, replaced David Angel, who died unexpectedly in 2017), Martin Outram (viola) and Michal Kaznowski (cello).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggini_Quartet
http://maggini.net/

***

Peter Donohoe (born 18 June 1953 in Manchester, England) is an English classical pianist. Donohoe studied at the Royal Manchester College and the Royal Northern College of Music. Since appearing on the professional stage, he has performed all over the world in solo recitals and chamber music, and as solo artist with many of the world's leading orchestras. Since 1988, he has made many recordings with EMI, Deutsche Gramophon, Hyperion, Chandos, BMG, Warner and Naxos. His series of recordings devoted to British works for piano and orchestra was inaugurated in 2001, growing to a catalogue of 14 works.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Donohoe_(pianist)
http://www.peter-donohoe.com/en/home

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!