Wordsworth- String Quartet No. 3 / Three Wordsworth Songs / Four Lyrics

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
String Quartet No. 3 in A Major, Op. 30
Three Wordsworth Songs, Op. 45
Four Lyrics, Op. 17

Allegri String Quartet
Eli Goren and James Barton, violins
Patrick Ireland, viola
William Pleeth, cello

Alexander Young, tenor

My transfer from vinyl – FLAC at Level 8. Tags in English. Sleeve notes in English.

Password protected link – the password is my username, exactly as written, all in lower case: https://itsssl.com/MzEiF

The sleeve provides no information about recording location or date. I find no further information online beyond confirming the existence of this album.

William Wordsworth the composer (1908 – 1988) is often neglected in favour of the 18th and 19th century poetry his more famous elder relation of the same name. A handful of recordings exist and remain available on CD, but great swathes of his output remain forgotten. This quartet, his third, has been recorded once only, in mono, and released in the early 1960s by obscure record label Discurio.

Whilst essentially tonal, this piece can be (somewhat unfairly) described as dour – if you’re in the wrong mood, it can constitute a very challenging and sometimes unconfortable 32 minutes. The melodies don’t give themselves up as easily as perhaps the more casual listener would like – but repeat listening pays dividends. If you’re in the RIGHT mood, this music – on cursory glance claustrophobic and unforgiving – is very satisfying. A crystalline beauty, immense warmth, and earnest romanticism reveal themselves if you care to receive them. Wordsworth, through his career, worried that he didn’t have anything valuable to say musically – I think this quartet, if nothing else, confirms that he did.

However, perhaps the real gold lies on side B. The first piece (Three Wordsworth Songs) sets, as the name suggests, three poems by Wordsworth. The second (Four Lyrics) sets poems by Drummond (1), Campion (3), and Shakespeare (4) as well as one by an anonymous poet of the sixteenth century (2). The simplicity of the setting – quartet and one tenor voice – is utterly beguilling.

This transfer was made from vinyl in good condition – please note that this is a MONO recording! Side A had some scuffs from about three minutes (straddling the last 90 seconds of the first movement and the first 90 seconds of the second) which have been dealt with; other minor artefacts are occasionally audible.

Enjoy! 🙂
TT

Shameless bump for people who might be interested but found this thread pushed off onto page 7 already… :O

so let’s see, I’ll try and remember to write back on if I could stomach this MONO tonal piece with slight resistance … never too late to like tango’s things

This is very nice. Thanks!

that was quite enjoyable. I wouldn’t say that the quartet was anything to write home about – I’ll stick with Shostakovich’s when I have time and the right mood for it, but the songs were indeed very enjoyable.