Stanford quartets

[eschiss1]

Out soon on the label SOMM, Charles Stanford's quartets no5 (op104 in B-flat, in memory Joachim) and 8 in E minor Op.167 (once broadcast with no 7 on BBC) performed by the Dante Quartet.

Announced as the start of a series.

Gripes taken as read, ok, that his quartets and other works could be better, etc, still, I've been curious to hear them for quite some time now. (I still haven't heard the CD of 1 and 2- just 3,5,7,8. So this series, if it continues, might just get to 4&6 (in mss)...)

[Jimfin]

I've got the CD of 1 and 2, quite fine works, and the broadcasts (a bit scratchy of 7&8 ), harder to assess. Would be lovely to her them all: a lot of Stanford's chamber music is rather fine, I think, especially the Piano Quintet and the Nonet

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Excellent and most welcome news!

I think I remember reading in the newsletter of the Stanford Society about 2 years ago that the Society was in the process of raising funds for the recording of all 8 quartets, and had approached the Dante Quartet (a very fine ensemble in my view). I hadn't heard any more of the project and wondered if it, like so many other things, had sadly fallen by the wayside. My hopes were raised when I discovered that the Dante had announced a performance of the 7th in their annual Tamar Valley Festival. So was a complete cycle underway perhaps?

The neglect of Stanford's quartets is a downright scandal. So far we've got (I believe) just one commercial recording of any of these quartets - the first two quartets by the RTE Vanbrugh Quartet on Hyperion and about 10 years ago. That was a really good recording, and showed these quartets to be fine works. In the meantime we've had two complete cycles of the symphonies for those interested in such noisy things, the piano concertos, lots and lots of the various choral works, plenty of organ music, and Christopher Howell is steadily rolling out the complete music for piano solo on the Sheva label (and a really interesting and worthwhile project that turns out to be). But the string quartets? Bugger all I fear.

Read the magisterial Dibble Stanford book (what a joy to read) and you see what great store Stanford set by his quartets. He rubbed shoulders with some renowned string players (the long friendship with Joachim for example). It is clear he cared quite passionately about quartets and set about writing his own with great seriousness. Hence my claim above that it is a wretched scandal that they have been so neglected in performance and recording.

However, fingers crossed, perhaps their time has come. We (hopefully and funding permitting) have a complete cycle on the way from the Dante Qt. I've also been persistently propositioning just about every Quartet I get to know in concerts and residencies in such places as Snape and Aldeburgh. A couple have expressed real interest in working some of the quartets up to performance level after looking at scores (some of which remain unpublished). One London based Quartet of real stature and with a successful history of recording are currently offering a couple of Stanford quartets to Hyperion, and if no response there, then to Naxos. In the meantime the more people who go about the world proclaiming the phrase Stanford quartets the better. Word getting around leads to concert performances and then to recordings. Music of such quality needs to be put on the map.

And now for a postscript on what on this forum is a sadly forbidden composer (moderators please close your eyes). Almost exactly 49 years ago I heard the Amadeus give a performance in a student society of Peter Racine Fricker's 2nd quartet. I knew nothing of PRF at the time (apart from attending a talk a few weeks beforehand by Hans Keller who, with a great whoosh of cigarette smoke issuing from both nostrils and that look of almost frightening utter seriousness glaring from his eyes, proclaimed PRF's quartets to be "interesting" works. As far as I recall he was supposed to be talking about the Mendelssohn quartets and PRF came up as a kind of diversion). It normally takes at least 3-4 performances before you begin to gain some confidence in getting to know a work and discover how it works, but that single performance by the Amadeus swept me off my feet and I was stunned by it. I've now yearned for 49 years to hear the work again for apart from a now ancient LP by the Amadeus there have been no recordings at all of the three PRF quartets, and I've never come across any of them in performance (at least in the UK).

Now PRF was a composer I urged the London based Quartet referred to above to have a look at. That was about 18 months ago, and a couple of weeks ago I received a message from them that they have now completed the recording of all 3 PRF quartets plus some bits and pieces. What made me especially joyful was a recording of the 2nd Quartet together with a message that I couldn't now complain that a full half century has passed without my being able to hear again that marvellous piece. Their performance of it is wonderful and to my ears especially successful. And the CD of all three Quartets will be released in February. Despite being out of bounds I hope fellow forum members come to share my joy when they hear this disc. And hopefully one day, and within a year or two, we will have all Stanford quartets in commercial records. I would regard that as something to be really celebrated. (So I'm now safely back within the limits of the Forum!

[eschiss1]

Thanks very much indeed on all counts (also note to self: must read Dibble in full, borrow from nearby library. Google preview is only that, when it comes to interesting things...)

[Sharkkb8]

Available now at MDT.   Available from Amazon [USA] in a week, but considering Amazon's higher retail price and MDT's exceedingly fair shipping charge, better to procure from them!

http://www.mdt.co.uk/stanford-string-quartets-nos-5-and-8-dante-quartet-somm.html

[semloh]

This is good news. My knowledge of the Stanford quartets is skimpy indeed (Nos.1 and 2 on Hyperion. and those "scratchy" radio broadcasts of 7 and 8 ) but I agree with you, Peter, that Stanford's chamber music certainly deserves more attention.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

I've had my copy of the CD for two weeks now......and think I've almost worn it out with repeated playing! Truly magnificent music, and I feel so fortunate in being able to listen to these two quartets that I've wanted to hear for such a long time. Roll on the remaining Quartets, and may the present disc succeed in giving Stanford's chamber music for strings the prominence it deserves.

[matesic]

Unlike the eighth which Stanford left in manuscript (and which a very pompous custodian of the manuscript collection at Newcastle University refused me access to - exclusively Jeremy Dibble's "turf" I presume), newly typeset parts of the fifth quartet have been available from SJ Music since 1998. Perfectly good scans of the original edition of this and the still-unrecorded (or unreleased) third quartet are also available on imslp. It seems very strange that it's taken all this time to get the prospect of a complete recorded cycle - don't our native young hot-shot quartets have any curiosity?

The fifth quartet Op 104 of 1907 is on a large scale and I think shows a considerable influence of Elgar. The funeral march of the third movement I found rather unconvincing, but the tribute to the recently deceased Joseph Joachim at the end of the finale is immensely touching. Now completely superseded of course, but I gave it my best shot here: http://imslp.org/wiki/String_Quartet_No.5,_Op.104_(Stanford,_Charles_Villiers)