Output details

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Piano Quartet; Dmitri Smirnov, Quintet for Piano and Strings; (various) Variations on a Burns Air. Primrose Piano Quartet (John Thwaites, piano)

The four performance outputs Thwaites_01–04 represent Thwaites’ long-standing research commitment to the piano in the context of chamber music from the nineteenth century to the present day, with particular expertise in British twentieth-century repertory, late nineteenth-century repertories, and in the commissioning of new work, especially for the medium of piano quartet. This first output includes the world premiere recording of Maxwell Davies’ Piano Quartet, commissioned by Thwaites’ Primrose Quartet in 2007 with funding from the Scottish Arts Council and others, and first performed by them at the Cheltenham Festival in 2008. Thwaites also devised and commissioned for the Quartet the multiple Variations on a Burns Air, from a collection of prominent British musicians, comprising John Casken, Joe Cutler, Sally Beamish, Piers Hellawell, Peter Fribbins, Jacques Cohen, Zoë Martlew, Robin Ireland, Stephen Goss and Francis Pott. This work was conceived for the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns in 2009. Aside from the intellectual, technical and interpretative research underpinning all of these performances, Thwaites played a key role in establishing the ordering and coherence of the (necessarily stylistically diverse) Variations, in discussion with the composers. The project is also ongoing, with a national competition for new variations announced from the BBC Radio 3 ‘In Tune’ platform, resulting in a performance at Kings Place, London, as well as other regional, amateur contributions. The CD additionally includes the premiere recording of Dmitri Smirnov’s Quintet for piano, violin, viola, cello and double bass, also commissioned by Thwaites and Leon Bosch for The Music Group of Manchester at an earlier stage in his performance research career in 1992. See CD liner notes for further details of research context.

The recording includes as performers two other Conservatoire colleagues: Robin Ireland (senior viola tutor) and Susanne Stanzeleit (violin tutor), with Andrew Fuller (cello).