CD: Maxwell Davies: Naxos Quartets Nos 7 & 8

The fourth instalment of Peter Maxwell Davies's 10-quartet cycle for Naxos brings together the longest and shortest works in the series so far. The seven movements of Quartet No 7, each of them predominantly slow, last almost 55 minutes, while the single-movement eighth, dedicated to the Queen on her 80th birthday last year, is barely a third as long. Both, though, are typical of his beautifully crafted quartet style. The seventh carries the subtitle Metafore sul Borromini, and all the movements are inspired by and named after buildings in Rome designed by the baroque architect, whose work has fascinated Maxwell Davies since he was a student in the city in the 1950s. The music is sustained, lyrical and, despite its slow unfolding, constantly gripping. The extrovert eighth offers a complete contrast. The "intermezzo", as the composer puts it, in the whole Naxos set, it is a tribute to John Dowland built upon his Queen Elizabeth's Galliard, which is present in some form throughout the work, although it only emerges clearly in the closing pages. The Maggini stage-manage that appearance perfectly, just as they handle the seventh's introspection with absolute concentration.