William Alwyn: String Quartets

Chronique

William Alwyn's works for string quartets range across his entire composing career from 1948's Three Winter Poems through 1984's Third Quartet, his last completed work. Alwyn's harmonic language changed over the years from colorful but deeply conservative to tougher but still deeply conservative, but his evocative content and emotional tone changed very little; even if Alwyn is perhaps not always entirely persuasive, he is always wholly passionate. In this 2005 recording by England's Rasumovsky Quartet, Alwyn's music gets its best possible shot at immortality. The Rasumovsky does its best to bring out the cogency and the drama of Alwyn's music, driving his fast movements, sweetening his slow movements, and bringing out the aggressive tendencies of his climaxes. How well they succeed will depend more on the music than on the performance. Even captured in Dutton's crisp, clean, close sound, the Alwyn's quartets might be insufficiently modern for some listener's tastes, and for them, there are always Ligeti's quartets. But for fans of twentieth century English music with more traditional tastes, Alwyn's quartets may be just the thing.

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