Alwyn: The Early String Quartets

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Composer William Alwyn is generally known for just three string quartets, numbered 1, 2, and 3, and much later than the youthful works on this album. The five pieces here -- there is a teenage set of Seven Irish Tunes for String Quartet as well as the four numbered works promised in the graphics -- are part of a group of 13 written between 1923 and 1931. Not all were student works, but they have that flavor: here, Alwyn tries out various structural and tonal ideas, although at this stage his later, highly individual flirtation with 12-tone music was not yet in evidence. The best, in the form of the String Quartet No. 7 in A major (1929), is offered first: this is a marvelously quiet, reflective work with a "Retrospective: Adagio e tranquillo" finale that sounds unlike any other music of the period. The Irish Tunes are certainly accomplished considering the age of their composer, and they are not Vaughan Williams knock-offs, but something more economical. Also intriguing is the String Quartet No. 9 in One Movement, embodying to a greater or lesser degree Romeo's "O here will I set up my everlasting rest" speech from Romeo and Juliet. The performances by the Villiers Quartet are ideally sensitive to the variety of styles Alwyn essayed here. This may be of most interest to fans of the interwar British scene and Alwyn, but it's listenable for anyone, especially the String Quartet No. 7.
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