A new album of chamber music by Edward Gregson is released on May 13 on the Naxos label. Recorded in London in November 2021, the album features performances by the Navarra String Quartet and soloists Alison Teale (cor anglais), Rob Buckland (saxophone) and Ben Gilmore (first violinist in the Navarra Quartet) who performs Gregson’s solo violin work Triptych.
Chamber music featured on the disc
String Quartet No. 1 (2014)
Le Jardin à Giverny (2016)
Triptych (2011, rev 2020)
Benedictus (2021)
String Quartet No. 2 (2017)
Gregson is renowned for his concertos and music for band, but his chamber music reveals a more enquiring voice. In recent years these works have been enriched with greater expressive and emotional depth, ranging here from youthful impressionism to the fearsome virtuosity of Triptych, a competition test piece. Gregson’s First String Quartet was acclaimed by one critic as ‘an extraordinary work, both gritty and serene’, while the evocative colours of the Second are framed by the gentle lilt of a Siciliana.
