1. Allegro
2. Poco adagio cantabile -- 7:35
3. Menuetto -- 15:37
4. Scherzo -- 19:57
Recorded in 1924.
Members:
1st: Violin: James Levey, 2nd Violin: Thomas Petre, Viola: H. Waldo Warner
Cello: C. Warwick-Evans

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THE LONDON STRING QUARTET

It is of a piece with the rest of modern English musical history that for long we looked on while others occupied this field, and that in the writing and in the playing of string quartets it has only lately occurred to us to put forth some strength and (with distinction) to win some considerable ground. Purcell's String Quartets are not published. Between him and Parry and Stanford what was there? (Onslow composed quartets, but they are forgotten, and then, he was half a Frenchman.) The composers seem to have arrived before the executants of rank. With the 20th century the trickle of English chamber music became a flood, and after a few years there were parties of English executants to play it. Now there are half-a-dozen distinguished English quartet parties. None will feel slighted if the London String Quartet is put at the head of them. It is the L.S.Q. which so far has been able to give the most undistracted attention to the arduous field, and has succeeded to the satisfaction of both worlds. The London String Quartet- James Levey, Thomas Petre, H. Waldo Warner, and C. Warwick-Evans-is a Quartet that has reached the ideal of doing nothing in life but this, eliminating the usual teaching and orchestral work. And it has been the first to win regard for English chamber music in foreign parts-at Paris and in Spain, Holland, and Scandinavia, then (and most resoundingly) across the breadth of the United States. It happened to be Mr. Waldo Warner who amiably spoke of the beginnings and of the career of the Quartet for the purposes of these pages, but such are the united intentions of the happy band, that he may be considered as speaking for all four. Violoncello and viola were the first to put their heads together for the making of the L.S.Q.: 'It was in 1908 [said Mr. Waldo Warner], and Warwick-Evans was leader of the Queen's Hall Orchestra violoncellos and I was first viola in the New Symphony Orchestra. The idea was Warwick-Evans's-the idea of a string quartet that should be worked up to the pitch of excellence of a solo virtuoso. He first spoke to me, and I was all for it. 'Music has been my life-interest ever since I can remember a thing. There is no other pleasure in music like quartet playing, I have always felt. Compare it with the drudgery of orchestral rehearsals! In 1908 I was enthusiastic, and (although there have been much hard work and hard struggles in the meantime) I am as enthusiastic now, fourteen years after. Petre, whom Warwick-Evans found, was the first of the violinists to come in, and then, after a little, Albert Sammons was invited to lead: then we started to work. We made up our minds to slog-slog-to the point of exhaustion. We decided it was no use exhibiting our-selves in an unfinished state, and we rehearsed four times a week for nearly two years before we gave a concert. 'From the beginning we have always held that there should he no "boss" in the Quartet. We have always been on an equal footing, if anyone disagrees with tempo here or phrasing there he speaks out. The point is discussed, and the decision made, if necessary, by voting. I do not think that any of us in 908 treasured illusions about any tremendous material rewards awaiting good quartet playing-we did it for pleasure, no doubt. Really to-day-when we are not "doing badly"-there are moments when it seems that mine is an oddly exceptional life, to be paid for what I most enjoy doing ! 'When we played at the first concert, January 26, 1910, at Bechstein (Wigmore) Hall, we called ourselves the " New" Quartet. The programme was: Dohnanyi in D flat, Tchaikovsky in D, and a Fantasy Quartet (No. 1) of my own. We fetched the newspaper critics first go-off, and their compliments were our reward for the previous two years of preparation. Our next concert, in June, 1910, was of Debussy in G minor, the first of Beethoven's Rasoumovskys, and a Fantasy of Balfour Gardiner's. We early saw that "New" would soon be a superannuated name, and Warwick-Evans suggested calling ourselves the " London "-a bold suggestion, but it gave us something to live up to!'

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