The Third String Quartet is one of Britten's last works before his untimely death and shows that the composer was still at the height of his powers. The music, inspired by the beauty of Venice, begins tentatively with a delicately wistful opening which contrasts with the passionate outburst that follows it. It is tempting to wonder if Britten had intimations of mortality when he wrote this work.

This disc, another in the Maggini Quartet's series of recordings of string quartets by twentieth century English composers for Naxos, brings together the three quartets of Lennox Berkeley. And as in the group's previous recordings of quartets by Bridge, Arnold, and Rawsthorne, the music proves as excellent as it is unexpected. Berkeley's quartets date from 1935, 1941, and 1970, and each sounds like a work of its time yet still characteristic of the composer.

The Maggini Quartet, even more responsive than on their previous discs of British music, give revelatory performances of works that too often have been underestimated, regarded as mere diversions from the composer’s regular path. The Magginis find a rare clarity and warmth in both quartets. The First was written soon after Vaughan William’s studies with Ravel in Paris, with obvious echoes not just of Ravel but of the Debussy Quartet. The Second Quartet dates from 1942 to 1943, written in the crucial gap between the lyrical Symphony No. 5 and the abrasive No. 6. Most revelatory of all is the Maggini performance of the Phantasy Quintet of 1912, a masterpiece long neglected, weighty and compressed.

New recordings of Beethoven’s Op. 18 string quartets by the Maggini String Quartet. Recorded in March 2020.