John RAMSAY (b.1931)
String Quartet no.1 in D minor (2001) [21:27]
String Quartet no.2 in E minor "Shackleton" [16:49]
String Quartet no.3 in C (2004) [26:40]
String Quartet no.4 "Charles Darwin" (2009) [21:35]
Fitzwilliam String Quartet (Lucy Russell (violin I); Jonathan Sparey (violin
II); Colin Scobie (violin II); Alan George (viola); Heather Tuach (cello))
rec. St Martin's Church, East Woodhay, England, 15-18 March 2010; 30
January-2 February 2011 (nos. 2-3)
METIER MSV 28528 [38:32 + 48:29]
After a career devoted to rock, Londoner John Ramsay has in recent years turned
to classical music. This is no cause for alarm, however - Ramsay is not another
Jon Lord or Paul McCartney, but rather a retired scientist who made his name
in geology, keeping a foot from his student days onwards in the art music
door. This is the first CD of his music, all premiere recordings by the renowned
Fitzwilliam String Quartet, the same ensemble that gave first performances
west of the Iron Curtain of Shostakovich's last three Quartets.
The Fitzwilliams were also the first to record Shostakovich's complete
Quartets as a cycle, and veterans Jonathan Sparey and Alan George were part
of those celebrated recordings. As it happens, this is Sparey's final
appearance: after 37 years' sterling service, he retired after recording
the First and Fourth Quartets - the latter dedicated appropriately to the
Fitzwilliams - leaving a younger Colin Scobie to record the other two. In
this recital they perform John Ramsay with the same intensity and attentiveness
they have previously accorded Shostakovich. Ramsay is not Shostakovich and
his four Quartets are unlikely to find their way into the repertory of Russian
ensembles; yet with luck some of them will be taken up in the wake of these
recordings at least by British quartets looking for interesting but audience-friendly
material.
Ramsay's Quartets are fundamentally tonal, with a good deal of chromaticism
along the way, written in what many would describe as a 'traditional'
style, typified by well-structured movements, the indication of tonality in
the title, the employment of orthodox forms and markings like 'scherzo',
'rondo', 'moderato' etc., and by the abundance
of melody. Ramsay is certainly no hobbyist, or at least he does not sound
like one. He was in his seventies when he composed these works, and they are,
consequently, deeply considered, individual, serious, sculptured works. Their
self-evident intellectual grounding makes their instant approachability all
the more gladdening.
The immediately attractive First Quartet makes an ideal opener. The set of
variations on a traditional Scottish Gaelic theme is particularly lovely,
enhanced further by some delightfully delicate playing by the Fitzwilliams.
Alas, the theme tune is called "Marie Bhodheach" by the Sasunnach
notes, which is neither Gaelic nor grammatical: the title is in fact "A
Mhàiri bhòidheach" ('Bonny Mary').
The brief third-movement funeral march of the 'Shackleton' Quartet
has a haunting beauty, the lachrymose mood of which is reprised near the end
of the final movement. The work is named in memory of an older friend and
colleague of Ramsay's, not the great explorer Ernest, although the
two were distantly related. A mere quarter of an hour long, yet the Second
Quartet packs a considerable emotional punch, the pervasive melancholy lightened
only by a brief jaunty Allegro, flamenco at the start of the finale.
The Third Quartet pays homage to Mozart in the first movement, in particular
his Quartet K.465, and the gentle dissonance typical of that work, so surprising
to 18th-century audiences, recurs throughout the work, aided and abetted effectively
by occasional bitonality and rapidly alternating keys. The final movement
throws in for good measure a fugue based on the mathematical Fibonacci Sequence,
leaving the reader suspecting a dog's dinner, whereas the listener
will hear a 21st-century composer proving that the string quartet as an artistic
medium has a lot of life in it yet, even using 'old-fashioned'
methods: this one is jam-packed with invention and energy.
According to the notes - unsigned, but presumably written by Ramsay - the
Fourth Quartet is a musical portrayal of "Darwin’s work as a geologist
and evolutionist". In fact a whistle-stop history of evolution (!), it
is about as programmatic as is possible, as evidenced by the almost minute-by-minute
commentary supplied: "Lightning and thunder is heard (05.04) and the
first heavy raindrops arrive (05.41). The storm finally breaks (06.03) and
slowly subsides (06.55), with sunshine reappearing (07.38)..." All of
which makes it sound rather precious, but that is not the case - Ramsay pays
a powerful, imaginative, emphatic and serene tribute to the genius of Darwin.
Needless to say, humanity manages in the end to wipe itself out, along with
all other life forms, giving rise to a cogitative epilogue describing the
barren beauty of a deburdened planet.
Other reviews of this release have tended to praise the sound quality, but
whilst it is reasonably good - intimate, certainly, with no typical
intrusion of the inhalations of the first violin - it is also undeniably harsh-edged
on occasion and always slightly muddy: time for Métier to upgrade their technology,
maybe. The booklet is neat, informative and well written. The geological cover
photo, repeated magnified on the CD itself, is ironic in a sense, in that
Ramsay's biography makes no mention at all of his whole other life.
Though a double-disc set, the running time only just exceeds a single CD,
but justice is restored by its one-disc pricing.
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at reviews.gramma.co.uk
The intellectual grounding of these quartets makes their instant approachability
all the more gladdening.
See also reviews by John France and Dominy Clements