Like a well-made martini, William Walton's best music is bracing and aromatic, sophisticated, but with an edge to it. The A minor String Quartet has...

Like a well-made martini, William Walton's best music is bracing and aromatic, sophisticated, but with an edge to it. The A minor String Quartet has many qualities in common with the First Symphony--an air of uneasy, agitated anticipation alternating with meditative melancholy, jumpy rhythms giving way to romantic ardor. The less well-known Piano Quartet is an interesting product of Walton's student years at Oxford and shows a strong affinity for Ravel's chamber music. Both works are expertly performed by the Maggini Quartet, who are currently working their way through the English quartet repertoire for Naxos and doing a splendid job of it. Their partner in the Piano Quartet is Peter Donohoe, who already has recorded a very successful version of the Elgar Quintet with them, also available on Naxos.