MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
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

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

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


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS
Sound Samples & Downloads

John RAMSAY (b.1931)
String Quartet No.1 in D minor (2001) [21:27]
String Quartet No.2 in E minor Shackleton (2001?)[16:49]
String Quartet No.3 in C major (2004) [26:40]
String Quartet No.4 Charles Darwin (2009) [21:35]
The Fitzwilliam String Quartet
rec. St Martin’s Church, East Woodhay, Berkshire 15-18 March 2010 (Quartets 1, 4) and 30 January- 2 February 2011 (Quartets 2, 3)
METIER MSV 28528 [38:32 + 48:29]

Experience Classicsonline


Following on from John France’s review of this release I don’t intend repeating his full background outline on John Ramsay, who as a composer is a name which will be new to most of us, as it is to me. The Fitzwilliam Quartet is however a very familiar musical institution, whose Shostakovich quartet cycle on the Decca label is still very much a reference and pretty much unequalled in terms of grit, emotional character and communicative power. Prof. Ramsay is a friend of the ensemble, and the booklet outlines their association down to the String Quartet No. 4, which was written for them.
 
Very professionally composed and full of musical interest, John Ramsay’s idiom is tonal and approachable but by no means ‘easy listening’, with plenty of intellectual rigour and complexity in its conception and structuring. The String Quartet No. 1 has some beautifully lyrical moments in its second Molto moderato movement. There’s much fascinating rhythmic creativity in its first movement and the Scherzo third, the close harmonies of which result in some intense dissonances which always resolve in one way or another. This also has a pastoral, folk-like central section which recalls Bartók, and the ‘snap’ rhythms carry through into the opening of the final movement.
 
Beethovenian four-movement structure is also a feature of the String Quartet No. 2, subtitled for a friend of the composer. The first movement is an expressive memorial, as the booklet notes describe, a type of ‘dirge’, but one which moves through numerous variations and an elegantly restrained sense of climax. The second movement is almost an extension of the first, with high lines and harmonics spreading towards with an inexorable and weighty Adagio tread. The third movement is titled Funeral March, though this could arguably have applied to the first two as well. The last breaks into an Allegro, flamenco, closing with a mournful adagio molto. I’m in two minds about this piece. It is clearly a heartfelt and necessary expression for the composer, but I hesitate to say it succeeds as a concert piece in its entirety. These are four movements which could have been one powerful arch, but which instead roll into each other like sad syrup with a rather lonely rhythmic lump.
 
CD 2 opens more promisingly, and I like the String Quartet No. 3’s combination of Mozartean grace and tonal scrunchiness in the first movement. The second movement meanders rather aimlessly, but with some closely worked-out thematic development and interaction. The third is a set of three Scherzi which skip along vivaciously, uniting and clashing in keys which lap together like interference waves in choppy water. This conflict of keys is brought to a head in the fourth movement, which explores dissonance in a way which at times feels like two quartets struggling together in a bag, or one quartet out of phase with itself. The final resolution of this into a C minor cadence lays the ground for a fugal finale which runs on the fuel of a Fibonacci Series of numbers. This is a movement full of energy and intrigue, but other than a fine quiet coda it’s neither an emotional roller-coaster or a show-stopper, more a technical tour-de-force.
 
The String Quartet No. 4 is a single movement in four sections, and ‘built on a program of [Charles] Darwin’s work as a geologist and evolutionist.’ The following text then gainsays this by indicating that it in fact has nothing to do with Darwin’s work and career but is more programmatic of the origins of the Earth out of chaos, the beginnings of life, arrival of mankind and speculation on the future. Either way there is clearly plenty of narrative progress going on, but as John France suggests in his review the attempt to link intended references to musical events can be counter-productive, and it is better to allow one’s imagination free rein. There is plenty to get one’s teeth into, and it will depend a little on whether or not you appreciate music which is deliberately constructed around textual associations - not because of the directly ‘literal’ context, but since the music is constantly crawling towards but never quite reaching its narrative goals. It is in the nature of music not to be able to express actual words or images, other than those which arise in the imagination or derive from the personal associations of the listening individual. This piece fails through being too literal to the themes it is trying to convey, and the quotes of hymns as ‘progress of man’s differing religious philosophies’ jump out as being rather cheesy. When I think of the kind of turmoil Ives could generate, or how the subtle suggestions of nature work in pieces by Beethoven or Messiaen - just to pluck two of a myriad of names, then I have to admire but alas abstain from voting this work a success. Time will show me correct or not, and it is only a personal opinion; John France considered it ‘excellent’.
 
This is a worthwhile and substantial body of work which convinces through the quality of its performances. John Ramsay is indeed fortunate to have the support of such a fine string quartet, and with an excellent recording this is a release which deserves respect and attention.
 
Dominy Clements

see also review by John France

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 


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
Past 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.