Charles Villiers Stanford - String Quartets Nos. 5 & 8 (Dante Quartet)

Information

Composer: Charles Villiers Stanford; Joseph Joachim

• (01) Stanford - String Quartet No. 5 in B flat, Op. 104
• (05) Joachim - Romance, Op. 2 No. 1: Andantino
• (06) Stanford - String Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 167

Dante Quartet
Krysia Osostowicz, violin (5)
Oscar Perks, violin
Yuko Inoue, viola
Richard Jenkinson, cello
&
Mark Bebbington, piano (5)

Date: 2016
Label: SOMM Recordings
https://www.somm-recordings.com/recording/charles-villiers-stanford-string-quartets-nos-5-8/

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Review

Stanford’s Fifth String Quartet walks out with a spring in its step and a song on its lips: not, perhaps, what you might expect from its subtitle, In Memoriam Joseph Joachim. In fact, as Jeremy Dibble explains in the booklet-notes, this isn’t a work of mourning so much as a celebration of a 50-year friendship: Joachim, said Stanford, ‘was not the sort of man whose memory could be associated with sadness’. He quotes Joachim’s Romance, Op 2 No 1, as a sort of motto-theme; it crops up at about 8'10" in the first movement and again at 5'06" in the second. Appropriately, Somm has included Joachim’s original on the disc for comparison.

In fact, this whole disc serves Stanford handsomely. These are premiere recordings, but the Dante Quartet speak Stanford’s lyrical, lucid but slightly reticent late-Romantic language like natives. Other groups may have a more streamlined sound but there’s a genuine sense here of four individuals in conversation; a spontaneity, too, that evokes a live occasion.

The third movement of the Eighth Quartet is a good place to take the measure of these performances, with the individual players taking turns to declaim the melody against a surging accompaniment. This is Stanford at his most ardent (his Irish roots show through in the finale); elsewhere the Dantes do a wonderfully natural and unaffected job of letting the poetry seep out from beneath Stanford’s civilised exterior. In its understated way, this music gets under your skin. Clear, warm sound completes a really worthwhile release.

-- Richard Bratby, Gramophone

More reviews:
MusicWeb International  RECORDING OF THE MONTH
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2016/Dec/Stanford_quartets_SOMMCD0160.htm
https://www.thestrad.com/stanford-string-quartets-no5-in-b-flat-major-no8-in-e-minor-joachim-romanze-op2-no11/5083.article
https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/reviews/stanford-string-quartets-nos-5-8-dante-quartet/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stanford-String-Quartets-Quartet-SOMMCD/dp/B01LB2P2HG

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Charles Villiers Stanford (30 September 1852 – 29 March 1924) was an Irish composer, music teacher, and conductor. Some regarded Stanford, together with Hubert Parry and Alexander Mackenzie, are responsible for a renaissance in music from the British Isles. In 1882, aged 29, he was one of the founding professors of the Royal College of Music, where he taught for the rest of his life. From 1887 he was also Professor of Music at Cambridge. His students included Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams and many more. His music was eclipsed in the 20th century by that of Edward Elgar as well as his former pupils.

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

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The Dante Quartet, founded in 1995, is one of the UK’s finest ensembles, known for its imaginative programming and impassioned performances. Frequently heard on Radio 3, the Quartet and has appeared many times at Wigmore Hall and Kings Place, as well as at the UK's foremost festivals and music societies. They have made many acclaimed recordings for Hyperion, Signum and SOMM labels. Committed also to teaching, they have created an annual string quartet course in France. The Quartet has been honoured with the Royal Philharmonic Society Award and also international awards for its recordings.
https://dantequartet.org/

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