String Quartets Nos. 1-3

"Lennox Berkeley's three string quartets span almost the same period as Britten's work in the medium, from the 1930s to the 1970s. There the similarity ends, for Berkeley's are both more cosmopolitan-sounding and arguably less groundbreaking. But they are powerful, often intense works, infused, too, with a sense of fun - particularly in the more Bartókian No 1 - which the Maggini Quartet takes in its stride. The players' ensemble is impeccable while allowing individualism free rein in the more contrapuntal passages."
--Review by Matthew Rye, The Daily Telegraph, January 26, 2008

For all Berkeley's French training (with Nadia Boulanger) and French refinement of technique, his quartet idiom is very English, closer to Britten and Tippett than to Ravel. The first of his three fine quartets, dating from 1935, is a big four-movement essay combining vigour and lyrical sweetness in a fetching manner, the sweetness most manifest in the andante non troppo second movement and the theme-and-variations finale, though there is a sweetness - or, at any rate, a svelteness - to the craftsmanship throughout. Both the three-movement Second Quartet (1941) and the more astringent, four-movement Third (1970) have powerful lentos. The Magginis play with passionate conviction and sumptuous style.
Review by Paul Driver, The Sunday Times, January 6, 2008

The Magginis' passion for British music never ends, and they're fierily eloquent in Berkeley's three quartets. The first quartet of 1935, clean and astringent, sticks to the usual mid-20th-century influences - Bartók, Stravinsky. The second is more fluid and personal. The third (1970) is the best: introspective, wistful, with some lovely ghostly effects. All contain tender, songful slow movements. Music worth getting to know, especially with the Magginis playing.
--Review by Geoff Brown, The Times, December 14, 2007

Central to Lennox Berkeley's chamber music output are the three string quartets that occur at regular intervals during the first half of his career. The First Quartet suggests the presence of Bartók and Stravinsky, its style recalling Berkeley's years in Paris, while by the time of the Second Quartet, in which the balance between formal clarity and expressive depth is effortlessly achieved, these influences have been thoroughly absorbed. Written in 1970, the Third Quartet features one of the composer's finest slow movements, a Lento which begins with ghostly harmonics before building to a climax of considerable intensity.