Garfield Jackson, Maggini Quartet - Williams: Phantasy Quintet / String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2 (2001)

The second of Vaughan Williams' two-string quartets proves particularly fascinating listening in these marvellously sympathetic and beautifully recorded performances of some unjustly overlooked repertoire. Completed in 1943, it's a searching, formidably taut utterance, whose troubled demeanour points the way forward to the apocalyptic Sixth Symphony of five years later. Only in the hushed final movement do the clouds finally lift, but it's a hard-won serenity that never quite banishes the work's nervy undertow. By contrast, the bracing First Quartet of 1908 is more obviously influenced by folk and often acquires a distinctly Gallic hue--no great surprise, perhaps, given that VW had finished his studies with Ravel in Paris just a few months previously. It's a wonderfully melodious, exquisitely wrought piece, whose comparative neglect down the years continues to baffle, and it's preceded here by the Phantasy Quintet, another prodigiously inventive, raptly lyrical essay, completed in 1912. Throughout, the Magginis respond with exhilarating assurance, irreproachable sensitivity and unstinting dedication; for the lovely Phantasy Quintet they are joined by the excellent Garfield Jackson (violist of the Endellion Quartet). This is yet another remarkable Naxos bargain, in sum, and absolutely not to be missed. --Andrew Achenbach