SOMM Recordings is thrilled to announce an exciting new album from the London Chamber Ensemble and violinist and director Madeleine Mitchell of premiere recordings of early 20th-century English string music by Herbert Howells and his Royal College of Music teacher Charles Wood, including the recently discovered earlier version of In Gloucestershire, thought lost, alongside two delightful short pieces, Luchinushka and Chosen Tune, newly arranged by Madeleine Mitchell.

Herbert Howells first composed a string quartet entitled “In Gloucestershire” in 1916, though the score was immediately lost. He began re-composing the work a few years later before announcing its completion in 1920. Following early performances and revisions, this version also disappeared. However, in the 1980s it emerged that a set of parts of the original 1920 version had survived, and it is this version, newly constructed and edited by the author of the booklet notes, Jonathan Clinch, and cellist Joseph Spooner who features on this disc.

Howells’s Three Pieces for Violin and Piano, op.28, is also from this same period. The title of no.2, “Chosen Tune”, refers to Chosen Hill, Howell’s birthplace near Gloucester, which affords beautiful views of the surrounding countryside where he enjoyed walking. Mitchell first performed these three pieces at the St Petersburg Festival of British Music in 2009. Having played the Three Pieces… in many countries since 2009, Mitchell arranged two of these, “Chosen Tune” and “Luchinushka” for a quartet programme to be given at a Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition in London in January of 2022.

The Charles Wood Quartet in D major was his last string quartet and most likely composed during the years of the First World War after the premiere of his Quartet in F major on 7 March 1916. This well crafted work incorporates Irish jigs, folk tunes and laments which reflect both his Irish roots and the growing sense of nationalism celebrating British Music during the period. Woods’ music, along with many other early 20th century writers of tonal music, fell out of fashion during the decades that followed, but as this recording shows, SOMM considers the music very well worth rediscovering and plans to record Wood’s remaining five numbered quartets in future.

The London Chamber Ensemble comprises some of the UK’s most experienced chamber musicians. It was founded by violinist Madeleine Mitchell in 1992 at the request of the Vale of Glamorgan Festival to perform Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps, followed by the BBC Proms and many other broadcast performances. Their recording of the Messiaen with Joanna MacGregor, with Krauze’s Quatuor pour la Naissance, was the widely recommended version of the work for many years. “An all-star group which manages to outdo all its rivals” (Gramophone).

This recording was made possible thanks to generous assistance from the Royal College of Music, Howells Trust, Howells Society, Stanford Society and Vaughan Williams Foundation.