Arnold Cooke: Complete String Quartets, Volume Two
The music of the Yorkshire-born Arnold Cooke (1906–2005) – inventively contrapuntal, lyrical and energetic in turns – does not deserve the neglect it suffered even in its composer’s lifetime. This second album of two presenting all five of Cooke’s string quartets underlines his reputation for resourceful craftsmanship, presented in a style which sits downstream from Hindemith, with whom he studied in Berlin, and from Bartók. There is also a surprisingly strong dance element in all three works heard here, though tempered, even in their lighter moments, by something of the emotional reticence of Britten’s quartets.
The Bridge Quartet
Listen To This Recording:
String Quartet No. 4 (1976) (22:10)
- I. Allegro (5:16)
- II. Scherzo. Molto allegro (3:00)
- III. Adagio (8:56)
- IV. Allegro vivace (4:58)
Variations on an Original Theme (1945) (16:23)
- Theme. Allegretto simplice (1:04)
- Var. 1, L’istessto tempo – (0:44)
- Var. 2, Piu agitato – (0:42)
- Var. 3 (0:51)
- Var. 4, Lento e tranquillo (1:18)
- Var. 5, Vivace (0:37)
- Var. 6, Canon. Andante (1:43)
- Var. 7, Scherzo. Allegro molto (0:34)
- Var. 8, Andante con moto (0:58)
- Var. 9, Più lento – (1:36)
- Var. 10, Alla marcia (1:17)
- Var. 11, Adagio ma non troppo (2:20)
- Var. 12, Fuga. Allegro (2:39)
String Quartet No. 2 (1947) (30:30)
- I. Adagio – Allegro moderato (7:43)
- II. Scherzo. Allegro (8:34)
- III. Andante (8:56)
- IV. Molto allegro (5:17)
First Recordings
MusicWeb International :
‘[The] first performance [of Variations is] given by the Bridge Quartet in 2023 and they perform it with aplomb. Its supple themes are easy-going but never simplistic, each variation is neatly characterised, even the very short ones – and even the March that lasts a minute or so – before Cooke ends on a fugal note. […]
Once again, the Bridge Quartet prove splendid ambassadors for Cooke’s quartet works, attentive to his variety of moods, his wryness and wintry moments and all points between. The acoustic is apt and not inflated and the whole production serves Cooke’s muse with dedication.’
—Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International