- Alec Roth
String Quartet No. 3 'Autumnal' (2013)
- Peters Edition Limited (World)
Programme Note
1. Prelude
2. Serenade
3. Dance
4. Meditation
Composer's Note
James Woods, an immensly knowledgeable string quartet enthusiast, commissioned my String Quartet No. 2, premiered by the Allegri Quartet at the Salisbury Festival in 2010. Later that year, Jame's wife, Lis celebrated her 70th birthday, and I composed a song as a present for her, setting words from John Donne's poem 'The Autumnal'. In 2012, when James told me that he was keen to commission another string quartet as a 70th birthday present to himself, I suggested incorporating the music of the song. The second movement, 'Serenade', opens with the viola playing a melody, which in the song carries Donne's words:
No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace
As I have seend in one autumnal face.
String Quartet No. 3 ('Autumnal') is recorded by the Allegri Quartet, and is available on CD, digital download and streaming on the Nimbus Alliance laben (NI6321). The recording, which also includes Alex Roth's second and fourth quartets, was made under the auspices of the Richard Thomas Foundation.
The song Autumnal can be heard in a performance of Mark Padmore (tenor) and Morgan Szymanski (guitar) on the album 'Sometime I Sing' on the Signum label (SIGCD3332), and in a shorter choral version as part of the cantata A Time do Dance, performed by Ex Cathedra, conducted by Jeffrey Skidmore, on the Hyperion label (CDA68144).
String Quartet No. 3 was first performed on 4 June 2013 by the Allegri String Quartet at St Thomas' Church, Salisbury, as part of the Salisbury International Arts Festival.