John Ireland was born in Bowdon, Cheshire in England to literary
parents. He entered the Royal College of Music (RCM) at the
age
of fourteen in 1893 where his teachers included Frederick
Cliffe for piano, Walter Parratt for organ and Charles
Stanford for composition.
During the first decade of the twentieth century Ireland worked as
an organist, choirmaster and pianist, and established his
name as a composer with works like the
Phantasie Trio (1906).
The impact of the
Second Violin Sonata (1915-17)
at its première in 1917 made Ireland a national figure
overnight and within 24 hours of its publication all
copies had been sold. Ireland destroyed almost all of
his student
works, with the exception of the two string quartets
that were published posthumously. From 1923 to 1939 he
taught
at the RCM where his pupils included Britten.
Many aspects of Ireland the man are mirrored in his music.
His lonely, shy personality had its roots in an unhappy
childhood and
this perhaps accounts for the melancholy strain in his
music. Ireland’s primary inspirations were England’s
heritage, its poetry and its landscapes.
The two
quartets date from his student years at the RCM. Although
his first and second subjects were piano and organ, Ireland
harboured ambitions as a composer, and particularly wanted
to study with his idol, the eminent and irascible Stanford.
Apparently the first
quartet
was intended
as a work which would impress Stanford to take on Ireland
as one of his pupils. It was completed in March 1897
and was supposedly rejected by Stanford as, “
Dull as ditchwater,
m' bhoy”. Stanford, however, subsequently arranged
for a group of students to perform it and Ireland was
encouraged by the praise given by the influential Director
of the
RCM, Sir Hubert Parry. Ireland referred to both the first
quartet and the second quartet completed the following
September, as RCM scholarship pieces. In the event, the
result was success since Ireland was awarded a four-year
scholarship to study with his hero.
For all their assured writing for the medium, Ireland's two quartets
show
not a trace of the mature composer's personal voice; their
models are often said to be Beethoven and Brahms. Brahms
died the month after Ireland completed the quartet and
was viewed by the young composer as a giant amongst contemporary
figures. His music was also especially admired by Stanford.
In the excellent booklet notes to this Naxos release Andrew Burn provides
detailed and informative descriptions of the two quartets
. Given
Ireland's idiomatic if unmemorable writing for the string
quartet, it is a shame that he never returned to the medium
in his maturity. Consequently, the only work for string
quartet from his main career is an arrangement, made in
1941, of the third of his
Four Preludes for piano, ‘
The
Holy Boy’,
originally composed on Christmas
Day 1913. With its wistful melody and subtle shifts of
harmony it is quintessential Ireland. Ostensibly this is
his 'Carol of the Nativity', as Ireland later embellished
the title: a lullaby for the Christ child.
The Holy
Boy became one of Ireland's most popular works and
over the years he made several versions for different instruments
and forces.
John Ireland’s string quartets have been poorly served
in the catalogues. In 1999 the Holywell Ensemble came
along and released a
recording of them
and of the
The Holy Boy on
ASV CDDCA1017. The performances, although serviceable,
are rather on the heavy side and have been accurately
described as “
sturdy”. Now the award-winning and popular champions
of English Music, the Magginis, turn their attention to
these same works. They offer well-turned performances,
full of freshness and enthusiasm. The excellent players
cannot make these scores better than they are but they
try manfully to inject some vitality into these rather
disappointing juvenile pieces. I detect so much in these
scores that are derivative of the sound-worlds of Mendelssohn,
Schubert and Schumann, and I believe far less of Beethoven,
Brahms and Dvořák, as so often claimed.
Inadvertently, I ended up with two sets of this Naxos release and
felt rather put-out when a friend politely declined my
offer of a complimentary copy, stating that he already
had a recording by the Holywell Ensemble on ASV. If I had
been handing out a
gratis copy of, say, Beethoven
or Mozart Quartets, I’m sure he would have accepted with
gratitude. Having now heard these Ireland scores I understand
why few will want another version of these youthful works.
I believe the market for these quartets is limited as
surely those that want them will probably already have
the ASV
disc.
Hopefully the Maggini Quartet will now look to record
the chamber music of Sir Hubert Parry. There are amongst
Parry’s mature
works a
String Quartet in G from 1880 and a
String
Quintet in E flat from 1909 which are crying out for
modern recordings.
Michael
Cookson
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Maggini
Quartet (Laurence Jackson, violin 1; David Angel, violin
2; 
