Things seem to be looking up for the British string quartet. Not only are the Britten and Tippett quartets firmly established in the catalogue, but we now have the Maconchy cycle from Unicorn-Kanchana and the continuing Simpson project on Hyperion to explore. Absorbing as all this excellent music is, I'd recommend anyone who has been enjoying discovering it to find room for this disc. Bernard Stevens's output for quartet may have been relatively small, but what he achieves in the two works recorded here is altogether exceptional. Even if you've already been impressed by the two Meridian discs of Stevens's orchestral music (the violin and cello concertos and two symphonies, 3/87 and 4/90), the quality of the musical experience on offer here may well come as a surprise, and as I've been discovering, these are pieces that go on revealing new things way past the first hearing.
Still doubtful? Then try and persuade your record dealer to play track 1 from 4'44''—i.e. Var. 5 of Op. 11. This is Stevens at his most appealing: a restrained but very expressive instrumental song, simply accompanied (though not so simply as it first appears), with the singing line elegantly distributed between the four voices. If possible, let the music run on into the scherzo-like sixth variation: as before, it's easy to tell that this is roughly contemporary with the First and Second Quartets of Britten, or the first three of Tippett, but the flavour is quite different—more inward-looking, perhaps, but certainly no less subtle or imaginative. Stevens has often (perhaps too often) been compared to Edmund Rubbra, but I find his quartet-writing on the whole more satisfying than Rubbra's; that sixth variation highlights one important difference—Stevens's counterpoint often dances where Rubbra's merely labours.
The best plan for investigating these three works is to follow the ordering on the disc. The Theme and Variations is the most accessible, the Trio the most introspective and difficult to grasp at first hearing, while the Second Quartet is probably the finest and certainly the most demanding. As with the Variations and the Trio, everything is derived from the opening material, yet there still seem more than enough ideas to fill the work's 27-minute span. And throughout this disc the performances are splendid: the Delme Quartet has obviously developed a strong communal feeling for Stevens's quartet style, and the clear, beautifully-balanced recording does it full justice. There have been a few small textural adjustments in the Trio (some of Stevens's octave doublestopping is a little awkward) but if anything these make for more clarity and remove any sense—obviously not intended by the composer—of strain. An altogether outstanding disc—and of all the Bernard Stevens discs so far, the one that puts his case most forcefully.'