Mark-Anthony Turnage Winter’s Edge; Shroud Piatti Quartet Delphian DCD 34254 52:31 mins
Once the ‘angry young man’ of British composers, Mark-Anthony Turnage (b1960) has not so much mellowed as become more comfortable in his own skin – and one result is an increasing, intensely personal focus on the string quartet. Since his first (2008), he has turned away from the blues-rock of its framing towards his equally beloved Beethoven, whose dramatic presence can be sensed alongside Bartók, Shostakovich and more in Shroud (his third quartet) and Winter’s Edge (fourth), performed here with passionate dexterity by the Piatti Quartet.
However, popular references are not altogether discarded – and it is unmistakably Turnage that grieves, rages, dances and tenderly salutes through these substantial and impressively crafted works, dated 2016 and 2016-17 respectively. It was a period of immense loss for the composer who, following the death of friends remembered in his second quartet, Contusion (2014), memorialises two further in Shroud.
Through five movements –interweaving ‘Threnody’, ‘March’ and ‘Lament’ with two, brittle scherzo Intermezzos – the emotional trajectory is clear and viscerally direct. In the capable hands of the Piatti, it’s suffused with energy and purpose: from keening unisons to nervy pizzicatos; thick, splintering counterpoint and aggressive down-bows that feel like repeated blows to the body.
Winter’s Edge has its own sense of ambivalence. Dedicated to his mother at 80, Turnage and his sensitive players imbue its four, untitled movements with a reflective lyricism that embraces subtle waltzes and loping, bluesy gestures. Alongside impassioned outbursts and wispy tunes, the resonant chords and chorales suggest melancholy without ever succumbing to whimsy.
Steph Power