by Huw Watkins

words by Dylan Thomas

Mark Padmore tenor

Petersen Quartet

Conrad Muck violin 

Daniel Bell violin

Friedemann Weigle viola 

Henry-David Varema cello

A live recording of the world première

WIGMORE HALL May 2007

Petersen Quartet

Commissioned by Nicholas and Judith Goodison

Over the last three years Nicholas and Judith Goodison have commissioned a series of four string quartets with voice, bringing together young and established artists to perform them. 

The quartet presented here, by Huw Watkins, is the fourth Goodison Quartet (Gordon Kerry, Julian Philips and Joseph Phibbs having composed the first three) and was premièred at Wigmore Hall on 15 May 2007. 

Thanks to this enlightened patronage these works make an impressive addition to the string quartet repertoire. Wigmore Hall is tremendously proud of its record of nurturing new music and this disc is a compelling example of the work presented here.

Huw Watkins writes:

'There are two settings of the poem In my craft or sullen art which are separated by an extended passage for string quartet alone. The music begins with an introspective introduction which returns, transformed, as a reflective coda at the end of the piece.'