Another valuable British Composers survey of some still too-little-known repertoire. Completed in 1912 at the behest of V. W. Cobbett, the gorgeous Phantasy Quintet is the earliest work on this Vaughan Williams collection: beautifully laid out and tightly knit in structure, it packs a wealth of invention and emotional variety into its four linked movements. No less characteristic are the Six Studies in English folk song for cello and piano of 1926: though the catalogue features these lovely miniatures in various arrangements for such instruments as oboe, cor anglais, clarinet and bassoon, this is at present the only available version of the work in its original guise.
However, by far the most questing inspiration here is to be found in the Second String Quartet, completed in 1943 just after the Fifth Symphony. Although the ''Epilogue'' undoubtedly radiates something of the same consolatory glow as the latter's concluding Passacaglia, the first three movements inhabit a more troubled world, their dark intensity strikingly prophetic of the Sixth Symphony (ideas for which were already beginning to take shape in Vaughan Williams's mind). That just leaves the Violin Sonata, written for Frederick Grinke and first performed on October 12th, 1954, the occasion of the composer's eighty-second birthday. Subsequently championed by Josef Szigeti (who pronounced the piece ''fine and challenging''), its most ambitious movement is the extended Theme and Variations finale, which utilizes material from an early Piano Quintet of 1903 (a work eventually withdrawn by Vaughan Williams in 1918). Towards the close, the violin is assigned a brief, exquisitely mellifluous cadenza, a touching reminder perhaps (as Michael Kennedy has observed) that Grinke was a memorable exponent of The lark ascending.
These vintage performances by members of the Music Group of London are, despite the odd rough edge here and there, utterly sympathetic, with Hugh Bean and David Parkhouse especially impressive in the Violin Sonata. Excellent remasterings and presentation, too.'