William Walton - String Quartets (Doric String Quartet)

Information

Composer: William Walton

1. String Quartet No. 1: I. Moderato -
2. String Quartet No. 1: II. Scherzo. Allegro molto vivace, e ritmico -
3. String Quartet No. 1: III. Fuga. Lento, ma non troppo, e molto espressivo
4. String Quartet No. 2 in A minor: I. Allegro
5. String Quartet No. 2 in A minor: II. Presto
6. String Quartet No. 2 in A minor: III. Lento
7. String Quartet No. 2 in A minor: IV. Allegro molto

Doric String Quartet
Alex Redington, violin
Jonathan Stone, violin
Simon Tandree, viola
John Myerscough, cello

Date: 2011
Label: Chandos
https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%2010661

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Review

Sir William Walton completed his Second String Quartet in 1947 but did not number it as such because he considered his earlier quartet to be an immature piece, “full of undigested Bartók and Schönberg.” By the late 1940s, Walton was beginning to find composition laborious. While his later years produced at least two scores of note (the Cello Concerto of 1956 and the Second Symphony of 1960), new work came slowly as the composer grew increasingly fastidious. When Neville Marriner asked him for a new piece for the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in 1970, Walton simply adapted his second string quartet (with some help from Malcolm Arnold), calling it Sonata for String Orchestra. Of the four movements, only the first was altered in any substantial way. The adaptation works perfectly well, but recordings suggest the music is best suited to its original medium, particularly in the highly individual slow movement, which features a quasi-oriental viola melody over pizzicato cello. The intimacy of the quartet medium reinforces the maturity of the writing, both in its simplicity and its textural polish. The composer’s personal touches are much in evidence throughout this work: the fast movements (the second and fourth) almost constitute an extended fantasia on the scherzo of the First Symphony of 1935, so similar is their rhythmic and structural profile.

In comparison to the pared-back nature of Walton’s later music, the early quartet presents a remarkable outflowing of ideas. It was begun while Walton was still a student, and the final movement to be completed (the Scherzo) was composed as he was working on a setting of Edith Sitwell’s poems that would bring him instant notoriety: Façade. The influence of Schoenberg and Bartók may be heard in this quartet, but to call that influence undigested is a self-deprecating exaggeration. This is a very fine piece of music. Contemporary influences are most evident in the tonality. Walton’s later harmonic modulations are often quicksilver but his music is clearly in a particular key, whereas in the first quartet a tonal center is not easy to divine. Nevertheless, this music is not as foreign to the composer’s later style as, say, the early symphonies by Stravinsky and Weill are to theirs. Walton’s instinct for tapping into the singing quality of string instruments permeates the early quartet, giving a foretaste of his great viola, violin, and cello concertos. The Scherzo likewise contains recognizably Waltonian syncopation and rhythmic attack. The most problematic and perhaps most immature movement is the extended fugal finale, an ambitious young composer’s reply to Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge. After hearing a few performances, Walton revised this by cutting a reappearance of the opening slow section, losing four of the overlong movement’s 16 minutes.

The excellent new recording by the Doric Quartet restores the cuts, allowing us to hear the quartet in its original form. The composer’s revised version may be heard in a recording from 2001 by the Emperor Quartet on the Black Box label (which as of this writing remains available), also coupled with the later quartet. Both recordings are first-class; these two groups are equally alive to every change of color and mood, and they both point Walton’s rhythms with vigor and unanimity. Chandos gives the Dorics a richer sound and they are a fraction tighter in ensemble, but even so I am inclined to favor the Emperor Quartet, if only because Walton’s revised First Quartet is less inclined to outstay its welcome. The new release nevertheless showcases highly distinguished performers and is heartily recommended. Walton’s two quartets, pace his own opinion of the first, are substantial musical statements. They are certainly the equal of the quartets by Berkeley, Arnold, Rubbra, and other English composers that have recently appeared on disc.

-- Phillip Scott, FANFARE

More reviews:
http://www.classical-music.com/review/walton-string-quartets
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2011/Apr11/Walton_CHAN10661.htm
https://www.thestrad.com/walton-string-quartet-191922-string-quartet-in-a-minor/6505.article
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalcdreviews/8348198/Walton-String-Quartets-CD-review.html
https://www.allmusic.com/album/walton-string-quartets-mw0002112810
https://www.amazon.com/Walton-String-Quartet-Minor/dp/B004LHOZW2

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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

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The Doric String Quartet was formed in 1998 at Pro Corda, The National School for Young Chamber Music Players. Described by Gramophone as 'one of the finest young string quartets', the Doric String Quartet has emerged as the leading British string quartet amongst the new generation. Its member are: Alex Redington & Jonathan Stone (violins), Simon Tandree (viola - replaced by Hélène Clément in 2013) and John Myerscough, cello. In 2009 the Quartet’s first CD was released to critical acclaim and was chosen as Editor’s Choice in Gramophone. Since 2010 the Quartet has recorded exclusively for Chandos.
http://www.doricstringquartet.com

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