Herbert Howells - String Quartet No. 3; Piano Quartet (Dante Quartet; Gould Piano Trio)

Information

Composer: Herbert Howells

• (01) String Quartet No. 3 'In Gloucestershire'
• (05) Lady Audrey's Suite, Op. 19
• (09) Piano Quartet in A minor, Op. 21

Dante Quartet (1-8)
Krysia Osostowicz, violin
Oscar Perks, violin
Yuko Inoue, viola
Richard Jenkinson, cello

Gould Piano Trio (9-11)
Lucy Gould, violin
Alice Neary, cello
Benjamin Frith, piano
&
David Adams, viola

Date: 2019
Label: Naxos
https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.573913

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Review

Here’s a disc to sweep away preconceptions and to help you hear with fresh ears. Howells described the finale of his Piano Quartet – dedicated, unforgettably, to ‘the Hill at Chosen and Ivor Gurney who knows it’ – as ‘the Hill in the month of March, with splendid winds of Spring rioting over it’, and I felt very much that way about this whole recital. This disc contains music-making of such energy, clear-sightedness and passion that sceptics may wonder where Howells has been all their lives; enthusiasts, of course, will feel wholly vindicated.

There’s even a premiere recording: Howells’s 1915-vintage Lady Audrey’s Suite, four character pieces dedicated to a friend’s child that crib their titles from Debussy and their colours from Ravel – the pizzicato accompaniment of the opening movement is almost a direct quote from his String Quartet. Like everything here, it’s a useful corrective to the prejudice that Howells’s pastoral manner was somehow parochial or backward-looking, and the Dante Quartet characterise the four movements with bright-eyed clarity and affection.

The same approach makes their account of In Gloucestershire one of the most vivid on record: letting Howells’s long, singing melodies fall as they come, but surrounding them with fantasy and colour – tremolandos that buzz with electricity, featherlight filigree textures and surging, windswept climaxes. And from Benjamin Frith’s dark, purposeful opening notes, the Piano Quartet has the same combination of ecstasy, atmosphere and grandiloquence. It sweeps along: you’ll taste Ravel on the breeze, and the Vaughan Williams of On Wenlock Edge, and if like me you’ve never really clicked with Howells’s choral music, you’ll come away tingling with the thrill of discovering an unarguable masterpiece. Hats off to all concerned.

-- Richard Bratby, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2019/Apr/Howells_chamber_8573913.htm
https://www.allmusic.com/album/herbert-howells-chamber-music-mw0003259684
https://www.naxos.com/reviews/reviewslist.asp?catalogueid=8.573913&languageid=EN
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Howells-Chamber-Music-Quartet-8573913/dp/B07NR8BQQL

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Herbert Howells (17 October 1892 – 23 February 1983) was an English composer, organist, and teacher. Howells studied at the Royal College of Music, where his teachers included Charles Villiers Stanford, Hubert Parry and Charles Wood. In 1920 he joined the staff of the RCM, and remained there until 1979. From the late 1930s, after the death of his son because of polio, Howells turned increasingly to choral and organ music. Though not an orthodox Christian, Howells was chiefly identified with the composition of religious music. His most famous works includes Hymnus Paradisi, Stabat Mater and Requiem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Howells

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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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The Gould Trio was formed in 1987; the members of the group are violinist Lucy Gould, cellist Alice Neary, and pianist Benjamin Frith. The ensemble often performs with other instrumentalists, including clarinetist Robert Plane, who is married to Gould. Their catalogue of Late Romantic English repertoire on Chandos/Naxos/Hyperion includes the works of Bax, Scott, Ireland, Stanford, Milford and York Bowen. Other recordings include the cycle of Beethoven piano trios, recorded ‘live’ for SOMM at St George’s Bristol, as well as the trios of Dvorak and Mendelssohn for Champs Hill records.

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/gould-piano-trio-mn0001800421/biography

http://www.gouldpianotrio.com/

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