These are old friends
in two senses. These recordings were
first issued by Metier in 1992. With
that label now under the wing of The
Divine Art – an increasingly perceptive
reputation in the land – the disc has
been re-released.
As a group of works
they have been coupled before. In the
mid-1970s Lyrita Recorded Edition LP
SRCS 68 had them played by the Richards
Piano Quartet (Bernard Roberts (piano),
Nona Liddell (violin), Jean Stewart
(viola), Bernard Richards (cello)) with
Thea King (clarinet). The effect was
revelatory. Few of us knew the works
before then although the Piano Quartet
had been broadcast as part of an ambitious
early-1970s BBC Radio 3 series called
England’s Green and Pleasant Land.
Christopher Palmer’s little Novello
book on Howells was also to instil curiosity
and later enthusiasm. This music - of
or just after the Great War - was the
work of a pastoral master who had shaken
off the Stanford-Brahmsian dust. When
vinyl died to all practical intents
and purposes circa 1986 the Lyrita LP
disappeared. It later became a prohibitively
high value item on the internet. It
was reissued only this month (November
2007) as Lyrita SRCD.245. With a playing
time of 53.20 there’s very little in
it between the two discs in terms of
sheer timings.
The Piano Quartet
was written in the depths of the
Great War. This perhaps accounts for
the terrific urgency and even desperation
of Howells’ writing in the Allegro
Moderato first movement at 4:03.
The music is deeply romantic and warmly
cocooned, these being qualities favoured
and accentuated by the acoustic. Folksong
is an integral part of the fabric of
this writing and one can easily feel
the plangent Lento as predictive
of later works by Moeran and even Finzi.
The ecstatically complex exuberance
of the Allegro molto plays the
boundaries between bell-tones, the caress
of summer zephyrs and chilly intimations
of Housman’s ‘steady drummer’. The other
element is folk dance with shades of
Grainger and even Stravinsky. It’s all
wonderfully handled by the Lyric Quartet
players and Andrew West. Individual
players eloquently cut through the textures
just as the score requires.
The Piano Quartet plays
for about half an hour while the other
two pieces time out at barely 13 minutes
each. The Phantasy String Quartet,
like the Rhapsodic Quintet, is in a
single movement. It is done with wonderful
gravity and speaks of nature spirituality
yet without John Ireland’s mystery.
It is music caught up in the glories
of landscape but then patters along
singing a long-lined melody of strolling
and sun-dappled confidence. The Rhapsodic
Quintet seems a further unbuttoning
of classical restraints. While the Phantasy
Quartet is a step away from the shreds
of formality in the Piano Quartet the
Rhapsodic Quintet takes that next step
into freedom. The music sweeps along
- a spontaneous response to the moment.
A haunted but not at all macabre second
half rises to a new lyrical density
but then fades back to an epilogue of
lump-in–the-throat meditative beauty.
It’s just a small step away from Zemlinsky’s
quartets in similar mood.
The notes are by Paul
Spicer who has done so much for Finzi
and Howells amongst many others. The
monochrome presentation of the booklet
and the uncredited line drawing are
all attractive and apposite. The only
thing that tells against the disc, and
then only by a shading, is the rather
warmly bathed acoustic. I would have
wished for a shade more impact but then
I would have had to sacrifice the mystery
so lovingly conveyed. I hope to be able
to compare the Lyrita disc before too
long.
Rob Barnett
The Lyric Quartet; Andrew West (piano);
Michael Collins (clarinet) 
