Britten: String Quartets, Vol. 2

Classic CD

November 1999

“The Maggini's performance is so good that it bears comparison with any of its rivals, and the couplings make it especially attractive. Excellent recordings. Strongly recommended”

2010

“This second volume of the Maggini Quartet's Britten series amply fulfils the promise of the first. As before, the recording favours blend and immediacy: the leading full-price alternative, recorded at Snape by the Sorrel Quartet for Chandos, has a richer atmosphere and a stronger sense of space, but, as interpretations, the Maggini's versions need fear nothing from the current competition. The major work here is the late Third Quartet, a score whose extreme contrasts of mood and texture, ranging from rapt serenity to explosive bitterness, are the more difficult to make convincing for the extraordinary economy of means which the ailing Britten summoned. The Maggini are hard to beat in the conviction they bring to all aspects of a notably well-focused, technically polished account. Their choice of basic tempos for the tricky outer movements is ideal, and they relish the elements of parody elsewhere without descending into caricature. This disc also provides the only currently available version of the early but radical Quartettino, and the quartet version of the Simple Symphony.”