Brodsky Quartet

“… this box can be strongly recommended, given that the recordings of 2 to 6 are amongst the very best available.  Here we have proof of VW’s enormous generosity of spirit, his exuberance and warmness of heart, and the nobility which still speaks with blazing clarity to all of us today.”

“… a glorious disc, search it out.”

“What a glorious disc this is! From beginning to end the music just flows in an unending stream of pleasure. There is such skill and maturity in every aspect of the writing… These works could not hope for better performances…”

“…a hugely welcome issue of most on John Ireland’s works for orchestra, from a conductor and orchestra who can seemingly do little wrong…”

“… Adam Gorb’s Aria for Sir John is a characterful tribute for recorder and string quartet, with (to my ears) a whiff of French elegance – it is instantly appealing. Michael Berkeley’s Dark Waltz is an elegy for a close friend; if the recorder doesn’t strike me as the obvious solo voice for a lament there’s no denying either the melodic charm or the sincerity of the piece, very much in the Valse Triste tradition. Alwyn’s early Songs of Innocence (1931) are tuneful strophic settings that illustrate the apparent simplicity of William Blake’s verses, without ever quite plumbing their more oblique depths: by contrast Richard Stoker’s haunting Memento Mary Magdalene might be the most immediately probing music on the disc. As for Sir John’s own works, his Elegy for string quartet from 2006 … As a stand-alone movement the abrupt ending might strike you as either bafflingly unfinished or admirably curt. A Recitative and Aria for violin and viola explores a similarly austere world, traversing a knotty duologue to a yearning and rather plangent lament.Three French Songs from his student years are more immediately accessible: winsome, delicate and droll by turns. After two short pieces for solo recorder the Nocturne and Scherzo for clarinet and string quartet (at 11 minutes) is the longest piece on the disc. It is very much of its time ..I shall certainly investigate his dramatic Double Concerto, also on Divine Art; for the present disc I must fall back on the infuriatingly equivocal description of well-made – even very well-made – music, well performed and presented…”

“…There are some wonderful things here. Take A Downland Suite … Wilson’s players give the “Prelude” just enough bite, and the “Elegy” plumbs incredible depths in four and a half minutes … The brighter, breezier passages [A London Overture]are marvellously done here, though Wilson really excels in the work’s spookier corners. The opening is as sinister as it is witty, and there’s an exquisite horn solo eight minutes in. Think of it as a darker sequel to Elgar’s Cockaigne…”

“A promising start to a musical journey promising seriousness and humour along the way.” ****½

“… The opening song in his [Wolf]  Italian Songbook, presented here by Carolyn Sampson, Allan Clayton and pianist Joseph Middleton, already hits the bullseye: a small song about the preciousness of small things, so simple and delicate in its melodic charms that you’re immediately captivated and moved… Sometimes the piano trots beside the vocalists like a faithful dog; other times, when the emotions are rocky, it’s impulsive and disruptive, something at which Middleton excels. Both singers are intelligently sensitive to each song’s needs …” ***