Fricker: The String Quartets
Villiers Quartet
determined performances.
Fricker: The String Quartets
Villiers Quartet
Purchase product
determined performances.
About
Benefitting from the afterglow of the 1949 Koussevitzky Prize for his First Symphony, Peter Racine Frickers original and striking First Quartet was premièred later that year to international acclaim. The Second Quartet shares a formal clarity and kinship with the tonality heard in the First, but evolving in range, technique and eloquence of expression. The symmetrical Third Quartet with its intricate variations is finely crafted in the serial style of Frickers later music. The music of Peter Racine Fricker is undergoing something of a gradual renaissance at the moment after many years in the wilderness. New recordings are a rarity however, and with this brand new production of Frickers complete string quartets made in association with the British Music Society we are well ahead of the competition. The Villiers Quartet is winner of the 2015 Radcliffe Chamber Music Competition, and holds the position of Quartet-in- Residence at Oxford Universitys Faculty of Music, encompassing the grand and iconic spirit of London's extraordinary music tradition.
Contents and tracklist
- Villiers Quartet
- Villiers Quartet
- Villiers Quartet
- Villiers Quartet
Awards and reviews
determined performances.
6th February 2017
Music of sobriety and intricate clarity, splendidly performed and in a well appointed, atmospherically open recording.
5th February 2017
Bartok is in the background of these astringently tonal, superbly crafted — and here splendidly performed — essays, but Fricker has his own touching authority.
26th February 2017
With impeccable timing, the Villiers Quartet have captured the current mood of edgy, querulous uncertainty with their release of the three magnificently bracing string quartets of Peter Racine Fricker...The playing of this highly talented quartet, champions of British music, is superb throughout and augurs well for their forthcoming release of Delius and Elgar.
May 2017
Compelling, challenging and deeply satisfying British music. Any Bartok or Shostakovich aficionado should enjoy getting to grips with the quartets of Peter Racine Fricker (1920 – 90), which here received magnificently assured, mostly premiere recordings…This is demanding music, and the Villiers Quartet has done well for reviving it with such immersive mastery
