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Howells & Wood: String Quartets

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This item will be released on 18 October, 2024.
Label:
Catalogue No: SOMMCD 0692
Release Date: 2024-10-18
Number of Discs: 1
EAN/UPC: 748871069220
Artists: ,
Composers: ,
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Liner Notes
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SOMM Recordings is thrilled to announce an exciting new album from the London Chamber Ensemble and violinist and director Madeleine Mitchell of premiere recordings of early 20th century English string music by Herbert Howells and his Royal College of Music teacher Charles Wood, including the recently discovered earlier version of “In Gloucestershire”, thought lost, alongside two delightful short pieces, Luchinushka and Chosen Tune, newly arranged by Madeleine Mitchell.

Herbert Howells first composed a string quartet entitled “In Gloucestershire” in 1916, though the score was immediately lost. He began re-composing the work a few years later before announcing its completion in 1920. Following early performances and revisions, this version also disappeared. However, in the 1980s it emerged that a set of parts of the original 1920 version had survived, and it is this version, newly constructed and edited by the author of the booklet notes, Jonathan Clinch, and cellist Joseph Spooner who also features on this disc.

Howell’s Three Pieces for Violin and Piano, Op. 28 is also from this same period. The title of No. 2, “Chosen Tune”, refers to Chosen Hill, Howell’s birthplace near Gloucester, which affords beautiful views of the surrounding countryside where he enjoyed walking. Mitchell first performed these three pieces at the St. Petersburg Festival of British Music in 2009. Having played the Three Pieces… in many countries since 2009, Mitchell arranged two of these, “Chosen Tune” and “Luchinushka” for a quartet program to be given at a Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition in London in January of 2022.

The Charles Wood Quartet in D major was his last string quartet and most likely composed during the years of the First World War after the premiere of his Quartet in F major on 7 March 1916. This well crafted work incorporates Irish jigs, folk tunes and laments which reflect both his Irish roots and the growing sense of nationalism celebrating British Music during the period.  Woods’ music, along with many other early 20th century writers of tonal music, fell out of fashion during the decades that followed, but as this recording shows, SOMM considers the music very well worth re-discovering and plans to record Wood’s remaining five numbered quartets in future.

The London Chamber Ensemble has been a permanent quartet since 2019 with violinists Madeleine Mitchell and Gordon MacKay, violist Bridget Carey and cellist Joseph Spooner. The LCE’s previous album, released that year, Grace Williams Chamber Music, all 1st recordings, entered the Classical Charts at no.2: “Passionate and persuasive advocacy, gripping interpretations…more please” Gramophone. The ensemble was originally founded by Madeleine Mitchell some 30 years ago for Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time, recording and performing at the BBC Proms.

This recording was made possible thanks to generous assistance from the Royal College of Music, Howells Trust, Howells Society, Stanford Society and Vaughan Williams Foundation.

On This Recording

Herbert Howells (1892-1983) String Quartet No. 3 “In Gloucestershire” (1923 Version)
  1. I. Allegro non troppo (9:44)
  2. II. Allegro ma sempre ritmico (2:21)
  3. III. Andante assai espressivo (9:29)
  4. IV. Presto scherzando (5:59)
3 Pieces for Violin and Piano, Op. 28 (Arr. for String Quartet by Madeleine Mitchell)
  1. No. 3, Luchinushka (3:40)
  2. No. 2, “Chosen Tune” (1:30)
Charles Wood String Quartet No. 6 (1915/16)
  1. I. Allegro con moto (7:33)
  2. II. Allegro vivace (5:59)
  3. III. Adagio (7:51)
  4. IV. Allegro molto (7:24)
London Chamber Ensemble Quartet
Madeleine Mitchell, violin, director