The Atchison Quartet give affectionate performances of String Quartets by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs

Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960) was a prolific composer, particularly of choral music and songs, and was important for the amateur choral and festival scene in Britain in the twentieth century. However, his output included a fair amount of chamber music, albeit a significant number of unpublished works. So of his twelve or so string quartets, a good half of them remained unpublished and mostly unperformed in his lifetime. He studied at the Royal College of Music with Vaughan Williams and Charles Wood, and Adrian Boult, who was responsible for encouraging him away from teaching and into music study. He later joined the staff at the RCM, as well as founding the Danbury Choral Society, which he conducted until just before his death. His compositional style, whilst not as overtly influenced by the English early twentieth century folksong revival that influenced many of his contemporaries, it nevertheless was distinctly melodic and definitely tonal, which, when combined with his own reticence to publish many of his works, meant that whilst popular in his lifetime, much of his music has been somewhat neglected since. 

 

The Atchison Quartet is a project based quartet led by Robert Atchison (also of the London Piano Trio), joined by Ian Belton (the Brodsky Quartet), Elisa Bergesen (viola, the Bergesen Quartet) and Sophie Harris (cello, the Smith Quartet), and they have recorded three of the String Quartets, along with Three Pieces for String Quartet and A Birthday Greeting for Ralph Vaughan Williams. 

 

They open with the latest of the three quartets recorded here, the String Quartet in C, op. 95, written in 1940. Gibbs and his wife had recently moved to Windemere from their home in Danbury, Essex, and the opening movement has a spacious, sunny feel, although unsettling moments do edge in, before it feels like a train rushed through the conclusion. The middle movement has a gentle lilt, with a faster, more urgent middle section, before gently dancing pizzicato opens the final movement. As the instruments take up their bows, the music rocks and the cello sings a pastoral, pentatonic melody, with a slightly more chromatic response from the other instruments. The pizzicato returns, and all almost dies away, before a briefly emphatic finish. 

 

They jump back to 1917 for the String Quartet in A minor, Op. 8, one of the few that was performed in Gibbs’ lifetime. It was composed before his studies at the RCM, but it resides in much the same soundworld as the Op. 95 from some 23 years later. The opening movement has a lilting dance feel, although energy builds to something more complex, and a harshly insistent climax, before winding down to a gentle finish from the viola. Lilt is the mood once again the middle movement, with another pentatonic melodic line circling up and down. The finale has a more mysterious opening, but then picks up on the previous movement’s four note idea, with more insistent repetition. Lines swirl around, with perhaps some loss of overall direction, followed by some slightly more angular fugal material which also meanders along towards an energetic coda and an emphatic upward scale from the first violin to conclude. 

 

Next come Three Pieces for String Quartet, three musical impressions of places in the Lake District. Here, his impressionistic and pastoral style comes into its own, with flashes of sunlit chords breaking through the lyricism in Above Blea Tarn, and a flowing folk song gambolling along in Winster Valley, with undulating remnants of rain being driven away by soothing duetting lines in Loweswater: Calm after Storm. 

 

The String Quartet in E minor from 1958 follows, written less than two years before his death. His wife died in January, and then his friend Vaughan Williams suddenly died in the August. So understandably there is more introspection here, and the opening movement, whilst full of rhythmic energy, is full of nagging repetition. The central movement has more poignant lyricism, building to brief anguish, before a clam finish. The finale is a Theme and Variations, with a theme definitely reminiscent of Vaughan Williams’ ‘old English’ tunes. There are hints of viol consort, as well as a homage to (and direct quote from) Warlock’s Capriol Suite, and the final variation is a kind of Bachian fugue. The theme returns at the end, but stalls at the last minute, ending the work with two doleful E minor chords. This is the most overtly emotional of the works here, with Gibbs’ feelings perhaps breaking through that comfortable pastoral style for a moment.

 

The disc ends appropriately with a short single movement, A Birthday Greeting for Ralph Vaughan Williams, written in 1942 for the composer’s 70^th birthday. With its Vaughan Williams-esque melody and walking accompanying parts, it shows the great respect Gibbs had for his teacher and friend. 

 

The Atchison Quartet give warmly respectful performances throughout here, responding to the lyricism in Gibbs’ melodic lines, whilst also taking advantage of the rarer moments of darker harmonies and greater rhythmic activity. It is the Quartet in E minor that sticks out for me in terms of musical interest and diversity of textures, but this collection nevertheless stands as a strong advocate for Gibbs’ neglected chamber works. The album is well supported by informative notes from Nicholas Riddle, and the recorded sound is warm and bright throughout. 

Gibbs, Cecil Armstrong. 2023. String Quartets. The Atchison Quartet. Compact Disc & Digital Download. Convivium Records CR083.