Four
Eugène BOZZA (1905-1991)
Trois pièces pour une musique de nuit [6:18]
Frank BRIDGE (1879-1941)
Divertimenti H.189 [16:30]
Jean FRANÇAIX (1912-1997)
Quatuor [10:31]
Richard Rodney BENNETT (1936-2012)
Travel Notes 2 [5:27]
Jacques IBERT (1890-1962)
Deux mouvements [6:51]
Claude ARRIEU (1903-1990)
Suite en Quatre [9:06]
London Myriad (Julie Groves (flute), Fiona Joyce Myall (oboe), Nadia Wilson(clarinet), Ashley Myall (bassoon))
rec. 2014/18, University of Surrey, Whitgift Concert Hall, UK
MÉTIER MSV28587 [55:31]
The title of this disc comes from the fact that it consists entirely of woodwind quartets – flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon. This isn’t as well-known or established a genre as wind quintets – horn being the additional instrument there – yet in some ways it is a superior grouping. Balancing the horn with the other, less powerful instruments, is always an issue for quintets, and you need an exceptionally sensitive and accomplished player to make it work. There is no such problem with the quartet, and when you have players as excellent as those of London Myriad, it can be a delightful medium.
Four out of the six composers represented here are French, emphasising that the wind quartet has always been more popular in France than in other countries. The opening work, Eugène Bozza’s ‘Trois pièces pour une musique de nuit’ (best translated, perhaps, as ‘Serenade in three movements’) makes an appetising hors d’oeuvre, consisting as it does of three tiny but sharply characterised pieces. The Frank Bridge Divertimenti that follows is a more complex and demanding work, composed in the late 1930s when Bridge’s health was increasingly poor. Today, he remains an underestimated composer, and, as is evident here, was one who followed a highly personal path. This is quite a substantial composition, and a cunningly designed one. He makes a virtue of the strongly individual personalities of the four instruments, subdividing the group by having a second movement – ‘Nocturne’ - for only flute and oboe, and a third – ‘Scherzetto’ – for clarinet and bassoon. These two duets are written in a quirky, expressive, often atonal idiom, contrasting effectively with the perhaps more familiar language of the first and last movements. The concluding ‘Bagatelle’ is especially delicious.
Jean Françaix wrote a great deal of rather wonderful music for wind instruments, whose entertaining demeanour can belie its very considerable technical demands. Each player has to be able to get around their instrument with total fluency, and the quartet is presented with some real ensemble problems here, particularly in some of the Quatuor’s asymmetrical rhythmic patterns. As with all the works on the disc, I was hugely impressed with the brilliance of the playing of Myriad. The balance of the ensemble is perfect (applause for the recording engineers too), and each player shows great technical and tonal control, though playing with plenty of character and style.
More British music next, with the Travel Notes 2 of Richard Rodney Bennett from 1976 (the first set had been written the previous year for string quartet). These are in no way as technically demanding as the Françaix, yet are relaxing and great fun for listeners and performers alike.
Jacques Ibert was a master of texture, as the opening of his Deux Mouvements illustrates, with the flute’s rhapsodic melody floating over sustained trills in the other three parts. His ‘Trois pieces brèves’ are a staple of the quintet repertoire, and these are very much in the same agreeably witty vein. They could also be a useful piece for a quintet to programme with a view to giving their horn player a bit of a rest!
And finally, a confession; I hope it will not shoot into fragments whatever professional reputation I have if I admit that until I read the booklet notes for this CD, I had not realised ‘Claude Arrieu’ was a woman! Having played quite a bit of her music in my time, I am now suitably embarrassed. However I can redress the balance a little by saying that this ‘Suite en Quatre’ is a thoroughly enjoyable conclusion to this disc, and anyone who loves the music of Poulenc or Milhaud will surely enjoy Arrieu’s writing. The ‘Scherzando’ second movement is a particular delight, with its sinuous phrases for the instruments, and I enjoyed the comically grim ending of all movements except the final Presto.
A captivating disc, then, with an expertly chosen programme plus outstanding playing from this young and talented London-based ensemble.
Gwyn Parry-Jones
Previous review: John France
