© Luca Concas
Revolutions in Music
The British New Music
The Smith Quartet
Ian Humphries violin
Rick Koster violin
Nic Pendlebury viola
Deirdre Cooper cello
Gavin Bryars
String Quartet no. 1 “Between the National and the Bristol”
Michael Nyman
Quartet no. 5
Steve Martland
Patrol
A peaceful but irresistible musical revolution started in the extraordinary swinging London of the 1960s, and soon infected the world with something previously unheard of. A revolution where a significant role was played by what might be called “New British Music”, created by a well-assorted bunch of young and aggressive composers like the “rebel” Cornelius Cardew. The Smith Quartet, a protagonist of this “quiet revolution”, was the dedicatee of many seminal works. Gavin Bryars, Michael Nyman and Steve Martland (who died prematurely in 2013), all born within a decade, are among the major and most original exponents of this long-lived sonic adventure, whose unmistakably British wit continues to be one of freshest and most exciting voices of our time.
