Frith Piano QuartetNimbus Alliance NI 6183 ****

When William Walton (1902- 83) began his Piano Quartet in D minor, he was a student still writing letters to his mother thanking her for money and tuck, and telling her about a scrap with students from another Oxford college – "We sank about ten of their punts". The piece attracted the interest of Vaughan Williams, and the enthusiasm it generated in Sacheverell Sitwell led to Walton's adoption by the Sitwells and his first great success, Façade. The composer retained affection for his youthful endeavour and revised it in the 1970s. The Frith Piano Quartet relish its extremes, from the heady romanticism of its slow movement, to the blunt, chomping energy of its finale. The opening movements of the fervently extravagant Piano Quartet that Guillaume Lekeu (1870-94) didn't live to complete make a stronger impression than Frank Bridge's Phantasy. url.ie/6c45