In Gloucestershire (String Quartet No. 3) / Three Rhapsodies

'Eloquent performances of some captivating rarities … absolutely not to be missed' (Gramophone)

'Exquisite chamber music ... warm and expressive performances' (BBC Record Review)

'Performances are exceptionally fine ... and the recording creates a pleasantly intimate atmosphere for the listener to discover these little-known gems' (The Good CD Guide)

'Both works are played with great feeling and beauty of tone in an ideally sympathetic recording' (BBC Music Magazine)

'The first movement [In Gloucestershire] is pastorally rhapsodic and lyrical, melodically, harmonically and texturally inventive. Dyson's Rhapsodies prove an inspired coupling'

This disc is an excellent reminder for those who think of Howells and Dyson as merely English choral composers. The Howells is passionate and elegiac, a moving evocation of the Cotswolds, full of dark shadows, surely coloured by the experience of the first world war, when the first version of the work was written. In the rhapsodies by Dyson the influence of Richard Strauss can be heard (Strauss was one of Dyson's musical idols). Together the works form a charming disc of rarely-recorded pieces.