String Quartet No. 3 (String Quartet)

The set of parts to David Matthews' String Quartet No.3.

David Matthews is one of the most prolific British composers of chamber music. His Third String Quartet was composed in 1977-78. The 19-minute piece proceeds without a break albeit in four distinctive sections. It opens with a spirited Allegro Animato, riven with energetic syncopation and lively counterpoint. The following Andante is a crepuscular interlude, the night-music punctuated by a ghostly Prestissimo section. A furious scherzo-like sequence of triplets and trills follows, before an elegiac Largo conclusion. 

'The Third Quartet abounds in Tippett-like qualities of energy and eloquence, the writing idiomatic yet avoiding mere sound effects.'
Gramophone (Arnold Whittall), February 1995