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Track(s) taken from CDA66376

String Trio

composer
1987; Prelude, Adagio and Fugue

Delmé Quartet
Recording details: July 1989
Seldon Hall, Haberdashers' Aske's School, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
Produced by Arthur Johnson
Engineered by Antony Howell
Release date: March 1990
Total duration: 13 minutes 28 seconds
 

Reviews

‘The Delmé Quartet play with exemplary clarity and a consistent appreciation of the direction of musical thought’ (Gramophone)

‘This is music which makes a warm and instant appeal to any quartet-lover’ (The Guardian)
The String Trio (1987) is dedicated to Jillian White of BBC Bristol and was written for one of her lunchtime concerts. It is subtitled 'Prelude, Adagio and Fugue' and like Quartet No 6 is governed by two intervals, thirds and fourths, which play a prominent role throughout. In the last decade, Simpson's language has been more concerned with achieving large-scale harmonie effects without closely adhering to keys, to make intervals, and often combinations of intervals, resonate over large structures because of the energy that generates vital ideas from them. The Trio demonstrates this clearly.

The Presto is light and kittenish, perhaps having something of the wit of a Mendelssohn scherzo, thirds and fourths being repeated in a very rapid succession in the opening violin solo. It is abruptly shortened by the Adagio, a more extended movement consisting of broadly flowing, solemn counterpoint. The intensity that the composer achieves in this section is highly impressive, all the more so considering only three instruments are being used. The Fugue, marked 'Volante' (flying), is the most substantial section of the Trio, beginning delicately on muted strings. After a sudden crescendo the Prelude's main theme returns angrily on violin, 'presumably out of resentment at having been truncated so early', as the composer has suggested, and a fearsome conflict ensues as themes from both movements fight it out. The work concludes in a torrent of explosive energy as thirds and fourths are forcefully reiterated on violin and viola above a gruff motive on cello and a final succession of 'flying' scales.

from notes by Matthew Taylor © 1990

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