Michael Tippett (1905-98) wrote five string quartets in the course of his long life. The first was premiered in 1935, the second and third in the 40s, a fourth in 1979 and the last in 1992. The admirable Heath Quartet, formed at the Royal Northern College in 2002, played the cycle in four concerts at Wigmore Hall, from which these incisive, vibrant performances are taken. Each quartet has a distinctive character, No 1 close to the sound world of Tippett’s Concerto for Orchestra, Nos 2 and 3 nodding towards his opera The Midsummer Marriage, No 4 in one movement of four unbroken sections, and No 5, one of his last compositions, at once lyrical and sorrowful. Well worth exploring.
