Bax: String Quartet No. 3 & Lyrical Interlude

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Bax composed the last of his three mature string quartets between May and September 1936, inscribing it to the Griller Quartet who gave the first performance on the BBC National Programme the... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Release Date: 6th Dec 2002
Catalogue No: 8555953
Label: Naxos
Length: 56 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

January 2003

Editor's Choice

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Bax: String Quartet No. 3 in F major

Work length36:37

$9.00

$11.65

$15.75

Maggini Quartet

I. Allegro

Track length10:16

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

II. Poco lento

Track length9:16

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

III. Scherzo and Trio

Track length9:22

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

IV. Allegro

Track length7:43

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

Bax: Lyrical Interlude

Work length9:05

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

Garfield Jackson (viola)
Maggini Quartet

Bax: String Quartet in E major

Work length11:25

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

Maggini Quartet

String Quartet in E major, "Cathaleen-ni-Hoolihan"

Track length11:25

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

Reviews
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Reviews

2010

Bax composed the last of his three mature string quartets between May and September 1936, inscribing it to the Griller Quartet who gave the first performance on the BBC National Programme the following May. An appealing, cogently structured 37-minute work, it's cast (unusually for Bax) in four movements, the joyous first of which 'was probably influenced by the coming of spring in beautiful Kenmare' (to quote the composer's own descriptive notes in The Radio Times). An Irish flavour also permeates the bardic Poco lento, while the third movement's 'dreamy, remotely romantic' trio melody is eventually cleverly welded to the 'rather sinister and malicious' scherzo material. The vigorous finale builds up a fine head of steam and incorporates a wistful backward glance just before the close that's entirely characteristic of its creator.
The Maggini Quartet forge a well-paced and concentrated interpretation, playing with assurance, infectious rhythmic snap and heartwarming dedication. They are joined by violist Garfield Jackson for the haunting Lyrical Interlude from 1922 (a reworking of the slow movement from Bax's ambitious String Quintet of 1908), and there's another rarity in the shape of the lovely Adagio ma non troppo centrepiece from the 1903 String Quartet in E major that Bax orchestrated two years later as his first tone-poem, Cathaleen-ni-Hoolihan.
Throughout, the sound is faithful in timbre and the balance most musically judged.

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