Stanford: String Quartets Nos. 5 & 8

This new release signals the start of an important new series from SOMM Recordings which will feature the Eight Quartets by Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. This first installation contains Quartets Nos 5 and 8, which have never before been recorded but as this recording proves, deserve to gain their rightful place among the great 20th century quartets. Sir Charles Villiers Stanford invested a great deal of his creative powers into his eight string quartets which are all ‘big-boned’ intellectual works, yet full of vibrantly appealing melodies, structural invention and variety, and are typical of Stanford. With the exception of Robert Simpson, no other British composer has devoted so much effort to the quartet idiom, yet Stanford’s works still remain thoroughly neglected. Much of this is down to the unavailability of performing materials since four of the quartets, Nos 4, 6, 7, and 8, are still unpublished and require extensive editorial work for performance and recording. Professor Jeremy Dibble has tackled this editorial work for this first installment. Stanford wrote the 5th Quartet in the memory of his friend and mentor, violinist Joseph Joachim, who died in 1907. In this piece, Stanford included his own personal tribute in each of the four movements, a motto ‘quotation’ from the opening bars of Joachim’s Romance Op. 2 No. 1 for Violin and Piano. This work has been included in this recording for its important relationship to the 5th Quartet.