COMPOSERS: Rawsthorne
LABELS: Naxos
ALBUM TITLE: Rawsthorne
WORKS: String Quartets Nos 1-3; Theme and Variations for two violins
PERFORMER: Maggini Quartet
CATALOGUE NO: 8.570136
Alan Rawsthorne (1905-71) had
an eloquent, slightly cerebral
manner which was well suited to the
medium of the string quartet, and he composed three fine examples. The
First, written in 1939, has survived
as a single movement, an imaginative
sequence of variations; the Second,
of 1954, also has a set of variations
as the last of its four compact
movements. The Third Quartet of
1965, is perhaps the most impressive
in its conflation of four contrasting
sections (the plan is slightly obscured
by Naxos’s track listing) into a
continuous, coherent whole.
The Magginis, stalwart advocates
of British music, similarly seem to
have mastered the art of combining
four individuals with distinctive
sounds into a cohesive unit, precise
in tuning and ensemble. Compared
to the rival Flesch Quartet on ASV,
they display a more subtle variety
of vibrato, generally lightening the
texture but tightening the screw
more effectively at moments of
tension. And, whereas the Flesch
add to the three numbered works
an early, unpublished quartet, the
Maggini scores by including instead
the 1937 Theme and Variations for
two violins, a little masterpiece of
resourcefulness and invention. That’s
recorded with a slightly edgy quality,
but in the quartets the sound is
outstandingly clear. Anthony Burton