Ravel: String Quartet - Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge & String Quartet No. 1

Pairing, as the Britten Quartet did in this 1991 recording, Ravel’s string quartet with Vaughan Williams’s in G minor (generally considered his “No. 1,” although there is an early work he disowned) is a stimulating idea, and one that is highly relevant musically. The English composer, feeling that he had reached a musical impasse and wishing to refine his harmony, had gone to study with Ravel for a few months to learn musical clarity “à la française”. He returned from his stay in Paris with this enchanting - and still far too little-known - piece in mind. The song cycle On Wenlock Edge, performed here by tenor Philip Langridge, is in the same impressionistic vein and is undoubtedly a pinnacle of Vaughan Williams’s vocal music.