Françaix: Quartet for English horn, violin, viola and cello
II Andante Tranquillo
From Mozart: A Tribute to Janet (2017)
Released by Harmonia Mundi
Françaix: Quartet for English horn, violin, viola and cello – II Andante Tranquillo
A Tribute to Janet.
The Britten Oboe Quartet here makes its recording debut with a programme of its core repertory. It naturally includes the great Mozart Quartet K.370 and Britten’s own Phantasy op. 2, but also two pieces that have a special resonance for the distinguished oboist Nicholas Daniel, because they were commissioned and premiered by Janet Craxton (1929-81), his ‘beloved teacher’ and inspiration, and her London Oboe Quartet. Thus Oliver Knussen’s Cantata (1977) and the delightful Cor Anglais Quartet of Jean Françaix add further variety to a fascinating anthology that also features Nicholas Daniel’s own completion of Mozart’s elegiac fragment K580a.
