Mark-Anthony Turnage: Winter's Edge Piatti Quartet

• Mark-Anthony Turnage (b. 1960): Shroud:
• 1 Turnage: Shroud: I. Threnody 11:03
• 2 Turnage: Shroud: II. Intermezzo 1 02:52
• 3 Turnage: Shroud: III. March 04:20
• 4 Turnage: Shroud: IV. Intermezzo 2 02:43
• 5 Turnage: Shroud: V. Lament 08:06
• Winter's Edge:
• 6 Turnage: Winter's Edge: I. 1 07:26
• 7 Turnage: Winter's Edge: II. 2 04:01
• 8 Turnage: Winter's Edge: III. 3 04:35
• 9 Turnage: Winter's Edge: IV. 4 07:20
• Total Runtime 52:26

Info for Mark-Anthony Turnage: Winter's Edge

Two incredibly soulful and passionate quartets by Mark-Anthony Turnage feature in this recording. ‘Shroud’, commissioned by the Emerson Quartet in 2016 and ‘Winter’s Edge’, commissioned by us in 2019, make up his 3rd and 4th quartets and they are powerful and compelling additions to the quartet canon.

Even at its biggest and boldest, Mark-Anthony Turnage’s music has always contained a thread of dark lyricism. Intimacy and tenderness of expression are never absent for long in Turnage’s music, and are essential to his large output of works for chamber ensemble – his mature string quartets in particular.

The two works presented so compellingly here by the Piatti Quartet, whose deep familiarity with Turnage’s music is informed by regular collaboration with the composer since 2015, are products of the composer’s late fifties. Drawing on the ability of the quartet genre to absorb and reimagine both elevated and vernacular musical idioms, they are deeply personal statements – at times shockingly so in their intensity and insights into a world of private emotions.

Piatti Quartet

Piatti Quartet
The distinguished Piatti Quartet are widely renowned for their ‘acute sensitivity’ and their ‘lyrical warmth.’ Since their prizewinning performances at the 2015 Wigmore Hall String Quartet Competition, they have performed all over the world and made international broadcasts from many countries.

The Piattis are famed for their diverse programming and for passionate interpretations across the spectrum of quartet writing, tailoring their performances with the violinists regularly swapping parts to bring out extra nuances and colours in every work.

Since their inception they have always had projects in the recording studio with critically acclaimed releases through Linn, Somm, Champs Hill, Hyperion, Delphian, and NMC record labels. Their wide ranging discography and repertoire is thanks to their enthusiasm and curiosity in collaborating with a broad range of artists including some of the most recognisable names in classical music such as Nicky Spence, Julius Drake, Michael Collins, Barry Douglas, Janina Fialkowska, Melvyn Tan, Ian Bostridge, Katherine Broderick, Adam Walker, Simon Callaghan and the Belcea Quartet.

Contemporary music has been ever present in their repertoire and leaving a legacy to the quartet genre through commissions is one of the quartet’s central tenets. Major commissions and dedications have stemmed from Mark-Anthony Turnage, Emily Howard, Charlotte Harding, and Joseph Phibbs whilst they have premiered a huge number of new works over the years. The Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Flagey Radio Hall Brussels, Wigmore Hall London, and the Aldeburgh Festival are some of the high profile occasions where new music has been presented and recordings of Turnage’s quartets 1-4 and Gavin Higgins’ chamber music has also been extensively lauded by critics.

Historical research into quartet music that has been undiscovered or deserves to be better known has led to the premiere recording of Ina Boyle’s (Ireland) SQ in E minor, and performances of lesser known quartet gems by Ralph Vaughan Williams, E.J. Moeran, Rachmaninov, Ireland, Haas, Ulmann, and Durosoir.

The quartet’s name is dedicated to Alfredo Piatti, a 19th Century virtuoso cellist who was a professor at the Royal Academy of Music (the alma mater of the founder’s of the quartet) and also a major exponent of chamber music and contemporary music of his time.

Booklet for Mark-Anthony Turnage: Winter's Edge