No doubt many of us still think of Mark-Anthony Turnage and his music as incorrigibly urban, yet it is more than 20 years since the Nash Ensemble foregrounded his lyrical side in a selection of small ensemble works (Black Box, 8/01). Composition of Anna Nicole, a raucous operatic exploration of media celebrity, coincided with the start of a run of string quartets comprising Twisted Blues with Twisted Ballad (2008), Contusion (2013), Shroud (2016) and Winter’s Edge (2016 17). All four have now been recorded by the Piatti Quartet, albeit for different labels (Champs Hill, 11/18; NMC – see page 56).

The third and fourth of these scores are coupled logically, if a mite ungenerously here. Shroud was written for the celebrated Emerson Quartet, scheduled to bow out at the end of this season. It would be unfair to view the present rendition as in any way second best. The insistently agonised ‘Threnody’ needs no weightier projection. Three shorter movements follow, quizzical in their loping gait. All are characterised with unswerving commitment. A final ‘Lament’ returns to grief-stricken memorialising and again the eloquence is striking.

Textural economy is almost as much a feature of Winter’s Edge, another deeply personal score. Predating the perils of Covid, its generally softer grain (and perhaps the title itself) would seem to relate to the dedication ‘for my mother’s 80th birthday’. The movements remain unnamed this time and the indeterminacy extends to an absence of expressive tempo indications (there are only metronome marks). The finale is slow, mainly pensive in character. The end comes suddenly and without fuss. Like Shostakovich, whose idiom is sometimes recalled in both works, Turnage must be counted a realist.

Remembering the high-impact (Prince inspired?) airlessness of some early Turnage recordings, the choice of an ecclesiastical venue comes as a surprise. In fact the music-making is expertly focused, without excessive resonance, by producer/engineer Paul Baxter. Andrew Stewart’s annotations are helpful too. Recommended.