Hollywood String Quartet: Quartet No. 2; Quartet No. 3; Quartet

COMPOSERS: Walton
LABELS: Testament
WORKS: Quartet No. 2; Quartet No. 3; Quartet
PERFORMER: Hollywood String Quartet
CATALOGUE NO: SBT 1052 ADD mono

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Pearl’s well-transferred anthology highlights two major aspects of Pablo Casals’s musicianship (a third, as composer, is displayed in other collections), where heart-rending morceaux sit comfortably next to characterful orchestral performances with the LSO.

That was in 1928-30, some twenty years before the formation of the Hollywood String Quartet and a recording of Walton’s Quartet that moved the composer himself to write: ‘I hope no one ever records my Quartet again, because you captured so exactly what I wanted…’ No doubt Ralph Vaughan Williams would have been equally thrilled with Adrian Boult’s inspired first recording of his Ninth Symphony – had he lived to hear it.

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In fact, RVW actually agreed to attend the sessions, but died just hours before they began. Sir Adrian himself makes a short but poignant speech on what is yet another truly historical document; one which is superbly recorded.