The Berkeley Ensemble strings
Simon Callaghan piano
Tom Wraith cello
EM RECORDS EMR CD091
Marie Dare is a new name to me; if her Phantasy Quintet of 1933-4 starts with a surging Baxian theme, it soon relaxes into something rather more suave and loosely pastoral, with a hint of Ravel’s airy textures. At 11 minutes it snugly fits the requirements of the famous ‘Cobbett’ competition – but I sometimes wonder if those limitations did not also sometimes inhibit the ambitions of some composers. It is such a thoroughly engaging and sincere piece that I could wish it had been part of a larger work.
Dorothy Howell’s frankly anachronistic piano and violin work from 1955 comprises an Adagio thatpositively aches with an almost numb loneliness, before a sprightly and determinedly cheering Caprice that recalls her near-namesake Herbert. That by the 1950s she had abandoned any attempt to remain stylistically current is evinced by her compact String Quartet of 1933 – a work altogether more ‘modern’ in tone. Here the writing is complex and vigorous, putting a troubled five-note figure through shifting paces, alongside scurrying and airy passages intended (presumably) to reflect the superscription about winter winds. Again, I cannot help wishing she had built on what is another fine nine-minute piece to give us something more ambitious.
Tobias Matthay’s Piano Quartet may be conventional in its C19th mien, but its invention is forthright and vigorous, with a fine rhetorical sweep. A predominantly strenuous and even heroic tone is balanced by a nicely unbuttoned Allegro section. If squarely in the Germanic tradition, it is no worse for that, but at thirteen minutes where will it ever find a place on the recital platform? Luckily that matters less now we have this fine performance.
John Blackwood McEwen’s Nugae are seven bagatelles for string quartet. They encompass a range of moods, from skittish through melancholy, and witty to vehement. If these are to some extent vignettes from a now lost pre-war world, then the penultimate Dhu Loch touchesreal depths before Red Murdoch signs the work off with the abandon of a Highland reel.
The Berkeley Ensemble and their partners play with sensitivity energy and enthusiasm throughout. The recorded sound is excellent, and the extensive and illuminating notes are a model of their kind. Altogether a splendid disc.
Review by Kevin Mandry