Simply Quartet

Works by Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms and the South African-British composer Priaulx Rainier.

A terrible stroke of fate led the South African-born Priaulx Rainier to compose: After a serious car accident in the early 1930s, she was unable to continue the career she had previously pursued as a professional violinist, and as a result became increasingly involved in composition. Her 1939 string quartet, in which she impressively captured the oppressive atmosphere of the "age of fear" (W. H. Auden) that was dawning in Europe with Germany's invasion of Poland, was the self-taught composer's breakthrough in her adopted country of England. The award-winning Simply Quartet - one of the most exciting young string quartets of our time - juxtaposes Rainier with Franz Schubert's String Quartet No. 8 and Johannes Brahms' String Quartet No. 3, two works that both share the key of B flat major. However, while Schubert's quartet is pervaded by a brooding heaviness, Brahms' string quartet radiates a classicistic lightness.