Crawford: String Quartets Nos 1–3 - Edinburgh Quartet

Delphian’s second disc of chamber music by Robert Crawford was released shortly before his death in January 2012, aged 86, and pays fitting tribute to a composer whose long friendship with the Edinburgh Quartet ultimately brought him back to composition after three decades’ silence. Given here in characteristically vivid readings, these three fine works thus offer a fascinating overview of Crawford’s stylistic development; the second in particular, with its inspired wit and infectious musicality, deserves far greater renown.