Waltz. Allegretto (molto rubato sempre) - Agitato - Con fuoco
2:58
7.
III
Burlesque. To Francis Barton - Presto - Con brio - Pesante - Animato -
3:18
Sempre in tempo - Prestissimo
String Quartet No.3, Op.94 (1975)
27:23
To Hans Keller
8.
1
Duets. With moderate movement - Quietly - Very quietly
5:38
9.
2
Ostinato. Very fast
3:11
10.
3
Solo. Very calm - Lively - [As before]
6:01
11.
4
Burlesque. Fast, con fuoco - Quasi 'Trio' - ('Maggiore')
2:16
12.
5
Recitative and Passacaglia (La Serenissima). Slow - Slowly moving
10:01
Total time: 47:52
 
 
 
COMPACT DISC TWO
HENRY PURCELL
Fantasias (1680)
17:00
in Four Parts
1.
VI
Fantasia, Z 737 (14 June 1680). [ ] - Slow - Quick - Slow
3:27
in F major • in F-Dur • en fa majeur
2.
VII
Fantasia, Z 738 (19 June 1680)
3:29
in C minor • in c-Moll • en ut mineur
3.
VIII
Fantasia, Z 739 (19/22 June 1680). [ ] - Brisk - Slow
3:41
in D minor • in d-Moll • en rè mineur
4.
IX
Fantasia, Z 740 (23 June 1680). [ ] - Quick
2:55
in A minor • in a-Moll • en la mineur
5.
X
Fantasia, Z 741 (30 June 1680). [ ] - Slow - Quick
3:27
in E minor • in e-Moll • en mi mineur
BENJAMIN BRITTEN
String Quartet No.2, Op.36 (1945)
30:41
in C major • in C-Dur • en ut majeur
For Mrs J.L. Behrend
6.
I
Allegro calmo senza rigore - Animato - Sempre con moto - Energico -
8:13
7.
II
Vivace
3:23
8.
III
Chacony. Sostenuto - Cadenza, ad libitum [cello] -
18:56
Molto più andante - Cadenza, ad libitum [viola] -
Molto più adagio - Cadenza, ad libitum [violin I] -
Maestoso (quasi tempo I)
Total time: 47:52
Chamber:Benjamin Britten
Alex Redington violin
Jonathan Stone violin
Hélène Clément viola
John Myerscough cello
Notes
Founded in 1998 at Pro Corda, Suffolk, the multi-award-winning Doric String Quartet describes recording Britten’s quartets as a significant milestone: ‘In our recording we have endeavoured to tread a line that brings out the humanity in these works but also recognises the need for distance and fragility. This is very personal and intimate music, yet also world-encompassing and timeless.’ The Quartet continues: ‘Another feature of this recording is that Hélène Clément, our violist, is playing on Benjamin Britten’s own viola. This instrument (on loan from the Britten-Pears Foundation) was made in 1843 in Milan by Francesco Guissani. It was previously owned by the composer Frank Bridge who gave it to Britten, as a departure gift when Britten and Pears set sail for the USA in 1939.’ Hélène Clément writes: ‘To be able to explore the music of Britten with the very sound that the composer had in his ears is the greatest honour and joy I could have imagined.’
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Reviews
"The Doric String Quartet expressively explores Britten and Purcell."
Dr Juergen Schaarwaechter – Klassik.com – 5 January 2023
Nominee for Chamber Recording of the Year Award 2019
Limelight magazine Recordings of the Year Award 2019 Nominee
“Superbly played rumination on meeting of musical minds.” ****
Michael Quinn – Limelightmagazine.com.au – 17 June 2019
“… enthralling performances … as fresh and immediate as they were live… The Dorics (with violinist Hélène Clément playing Britten’s viola) captures every mood, from steely to poetic to tragic, the structure of each work ever clear. Essential listening.”
Fiona Maddocks – The Observer – 9 June 2019
“Britten’s own viola takes centre stage in the composer’s quartets.”
Tim Homfray – The Strad – June 2019
Editor’s Choice – Chamber
“… The performances are all superbly judged and controlled, balancing fragility with strength, restraint with great depth of feeling… this is a major cycle, engaging and profound in equal measure, and you need to hear it.”
Tim Ashley – Gramophone magazine – May 2019
Performance ***** Recording *****
“… Throughout, the Dorics show an extraordinary affinity with these highly idiomatic, eventful and hauntingly beautiful works… this is an exceptionally fine album which deserves all plaudits and surely an award or two.”
Daniel Jaffe – BBC Music magazine – June 2019
“This is a splendid way for the members of the Doric Quartet to enter their third decade, for they have done nothing better on record… The recordings, produced and engineered by Jonathan Cooper with assistance from Cheryl Jessop and Rosanne Fish, and edited by Cooper, are absolutely splendid, airy enough but with the cello line always audible in the Maltings acoustic. The Doric Quartet’s performances are good enough to withstand any comparisons … these are the performances that have specially caught my ear. “ *****
Tully Potter – ClassicalSource.com – May 2019
Album of the Week
“… With Britten’s earlier Three Divertimenti (1936) and D major quartet, Op 25, and his final work, the G major quartet, Op 94 (completed, with the help of Colin Matthews, shortly before his death in 1976), this is a small but substantial contribution to the canon, comparable in its emotional intensity — certainly as played, electrifyingly, here by the Doric String Quartet … The long Chacony of Op 36, with its solo cadenzas for three instruments, is especially poignant, as Hélène Clément plays the composer’s own viola.”
Hugh Canning – The Sunday Times (Culture magazine) – 14 April 2019
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Doric String Quartet featuring Britten s own viola!