Villiers Quartet - Still: Four String Quartets

Robert Still's four string quartets vividly encapsulate his compositional career. The first two, of which No.1 was first performed in 1948, display an early inclination towards folk-song and preclassical models, while Nos. 3 and 4, written during the 1960s 'without key', reflect his later change towards a continental European-influenced method of composition that can be summed up by the abandonment of writing in a tonal style. These world premiere recordings owe a considerable debt to the editorial expertise of James Dickenson, leader of the Villiers Quartet, who prepared the performance material from the original scores.