One of the most grown-up review sites around

2020
54,416 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here

     
  
 

 

International mailing


 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All APR reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

 

 


Availability
CD: Carducci Classics

Brian BOYDELL (1917-2000)
The Complete String Quartets
String Quartet no. 1, op. 31 (1949) [23:15]
String Quartet no. 2, op. 44 (1957) [14:10]
String Quartet no. 3, op. 65 (1969) [18:14]
Adagio and Scherzo for String Quartet, op. 89 (1991) [8:49]
Carducci Quartet (Matthew Denton (violin); Michelle Fleming (violin); Eoin Schmidt-Martin (viola); Emma Denton (cello)) rec. Highnam church, Gloucestershire, UK. 2008. DDD
CARDUCCI CLASSICS CSQ8841 [64:28]

Experience Classicsonline


The Carducci Quartet have a pretty adventurous pedigree witness their catalogue:
•  Joseph Horovitz - Fantasia and Quartets with Nicholas Daniel (oboe) Carducci Classics CSQ6482
•  Graham Whettam - Quartets with Jennie-Lee Keetley (oboe) Carducci Classics CSQ5847
•  Philip Gates - A Garland for Gatsby with Andrew Knights (oboe); Philip Gates (piano) Melodist 3130CD
•  Philip Glass - String Quartets 1-4 Naxos 8.559636

They now extend their coverage to Brian Boydell. The music of this Irish composer is worth more than a passing audition. Fortunately a range of discs, modest in number, allows closer acquaintance. The 1954 Violin Concerto and In Memoriam Mahatma Gandhi, Masai Mara and Megalithic Ritual Dances played by Maighread McCrann (violin) with Colman Pearce conducting the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland are on Marco Polo 8.223887 (we could do with a review of this if anyone has a copy). Boydell studied at the RCM in London with Patrick Hadley and Herbert Howells (1938-45) then with John Larchet himself a gifted composer, in Dublin.
 
The Second Quartet was premiered in 1959. Its two movements sing through a delicate interlace of ecstatically pastoral material. Rather than his declared models of Bartók, Sibelius and Mahler it is Patrick Hadley I hear in this lovely work. The breathtaking quietude of the end of the first movement suggests some unspeakably beautiful vision only capable of articulation through music. The second movement is more spiky - almost jazzy.
 
The Third Quartet is in one longish movement. It was first aired by the RTE String Quartet in 1970. Neither of its predecessors evince avant-garde credentials. This however has a chilly and thorny essence on display. That said it is not without an infusion of lyrical succulence. Nowhere is Boydell as ‘extreme’ as Mátyás Seiber in his masterly Third Quartet "Lirico". Boydell's music seems benevolently caught between the poles represented by Berg's Lulu and Warlock's Curlew. The work ends in an echo of Beethovenian defiance.
 
Boydell’s First Quartet was premiered in Dublin in February 1952 by the Cirulli Quartet. It too has its Curlew moments but it is tougher than I had expected. The complexity of the textures has probably hampered its progress. However when these thin out, as in the pensive melancholy at the end of the first movement, things improve. The central Allegro Selvaggio is athletic radiating some ingratiatingly lyrical tendrils. The long final Allegro (Adagio) has vitality but there is a severity there too though it's most poetically rounded out in a manner that looks forward to the wonderful end of the first movement of the Second Quartet. Gareth Cox, who provides the liner-note, tells us that in this work Boydell began to leave behind the too obvious influences of RVW, Sibelius and Bartok. I certainly agree.
 
The Adagio and Scherzo was premiered by the work's dedicatees, the Degani Quartet on the occasion of the 1992 quatercentenary celebrations for Trinity College, Dublin. It was finished on time in 1991. It's another diptych this time from the latest chapter of the composer's career. That Bergian Curlew-despair throws deep shadows as well as intimations of a tender nocturnal beauty.

The urgent attention of admirers of Boydell's music and of twentieth century string quartets in general is drawn to this disc. Boydell creates a distinctive and very beautiful realm but is by no means facile of access.
 
Rob Barnett
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Pat and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.