Dodgson: String Quartet No. 2

Recorded: St Silas Church, Chalk Farm, London, 31 January 2008; 1 February 2008; 3-4 March 2009; 18-19 January 2010

In a long and distinguished career, Stephen Dodgson (b.1924) has produced works in almost every form. An acute ear and sharp sense for instrumental sonorities have drawn him particularly to chamber music. His nine acknowledged string quartets (four more were withdrawn) are among the most important written by a modern English composer, and range from works of an almost Bartókian intensity to pieces in which his light touch and sometimes mischievous wit show in music owing much to early English music and a love of the dance. His most recent quartet, the Ninth, is a fine example of how serious things can be said in a light-hearted manner. It also shows how outstanding craftsmanship is used by a true composer in the service of music and not for display, to aid and not confuse the listener. His love of virtuosity is, characteristically, shown in the dazzlingly effective music he writes for instrumentalists whose skill and character he admires, as with the Flute Quintet. In the Clarinet Quintet, another virtuoso work, the soloist is also asked to be by turns ‘bright and skittish’ as well as ‘sweet and songful’ and ‘subdued and meditative’. Contrast is a typical ingredient of Dodgson’s music, as when the finale of his richly textured Sextet ends with a dance over the formality of a subtle chaconne.