Ethel Smyth; Frederick Delius - String Quartets (Villiers Quartet)

Information

Composer: Ethel Smyth; Frederick Delius

• Smyth - String Quartet in E Minor, Op. 1
• Delius - String Quartet in C Minor (reconstr. D.M. Grimley)

Villiers Quartet

Katie Stillman & Tamaki Higashi, violins

Carmen Flores, viola

Leo Melvin, cello

Date: 2022

Label: Naxos

https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.574376

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Review

Ethel Smyth wrote her E minor Quartet in two parts: the first two movements date from 1902 and the last two from 1912, but there’s no obvious stylistic imbalance. The first movement opens with a rhythmic figure reminiscent of a genial fragment of Morse code, presented by the viola and much used later. The movement is marked Allegretto lirico and the Villiers Quartet is accordingly gentle and lyrical, the weaving figures near the start deftly played by first violinist Katie Stillman; there’s some impish staccato semiquaver playing, and a warm-blooded outburst in the development when Smyth moves to C major, but for the most part sweetness is to the fore.

There’s an elfin lightness to the second movement (Allegro molto leggiero), with violist Carmen Flores taking the lead and all four players executing Smyth’s dancing semiquavers with rhythmically taut neatness. The great extended passages of the Andante are beautifully crafted, and the sparkling final Allegro energico is full of incidental detail.

The last two movements of Delius’s early C minor Quartet were lost until 2018, when they turned up at auction. The work has a wide emotional range, grim at the opening, granitic and forbidding at the end, with drama, dance and fervent lyricism in between. The Villiers Quartet gives it a fine first recording, captured in warm and well-balanced sound.

-- Tim Homfray, The Strad

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2022/Nov/Smyth-Delius-8574376.htm

https://www.allmusic.com/album/delius-smyth-string-quartets-mw0003794135

https://www.classicalmusicdaily.com/2022/10/villiers.htm

https://www.naxos.com/Review/Detail/?catalogueid=8.574376&languageid=EN

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Ethel Smyth (22 April 1858 – 8 May 1944) was an English composer and a member of the women's suffrage movement. Despite that her father was very much opposed to her making a career in music, Smyth was determined to become a composer, studied with a private tutor, and then attended the Leipzig Conservatory, where she met many composers of the day. Her compositions include songs, works for piano, chamber music, orchestral and concertante works, choral works, and operas. Smyth was made a DBE in 1922, being the first female composer to be awarded a damehood.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_Smyth

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Frederick Delius (29 January 1862 – 10 June 1934) was an English composer who forged a unique version of the Impressionist musical language of the early twentieth century. The lyricism in Delius's early compositions reflected the music he had heard in America and the influences of European composers such as Edvard Grieg and Richard Wagner. As his skills matured, he developed a style uniquely his own, characterised by his individual orchestration and his uses of chromatic harmony. After WWII, Delius' fame began to spread, due in large part to the efforts of Thomas Beecham, who championed Delius' music.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Delius

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Formed in 2011, the Villiers Quartet are a string quartet based in the United Kingdom. The name of the quartet comes from Villiers Street in London, which is known partly for its highly musical atmosphere. The Villiers Quartet have featured in events across the UK, including the Brit Jazz Festival and the British Music Society, and have played masterclasses at the University of Nottingham, Goshen College, Dartmouth College, Syracuse University, Sherborne School and Nottingham High School. The quartet has received a generally positive response, and has been broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 NPO Radio 4.

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

https://villiersquartet.com/

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