Elizabeth Maconchy: Quintet for Oboe & Strings (1932)

It is hard to imagine the Daily Telegraph running a chamber music competition in today’s climate. Without delving too deeply into the pros and cons of political correctness, it would seem unlikely that any contemporary event would confine itself to ‘string quartets’ and ‘wind quintets’ - there would have to be equal status for entrants writing works for didgeridoo and Tibetan nose flutes. But the world was a different place in 1932 and Elizabeth Maconchy won an award in the competition with her excellent Oboe Quintet. Her work was a precursor to the great cycle of String Quartets that the composer was to write throughout her career.

In the same event the young Benjamin Britten received a commendation with his Phantasy Quartet..

Elizabeth Maconchy’s Quintet opens with a declamatory phrase from the oboe followed by urgent string chords - this devolves into some discursive music where oboe and strings vie with each other to gain the upper hand. However, much of this first movement is quite reflective. The harmonies tend to be rather astringent yet there is a sense of Arcadian pastoralist even amongst this Bartok- tinged music.

The second movement continues the meditative mood of this work. This is the heart of the piece. There is no sense of the archetypical 'cow leaning over the fence' here - but neither does the prevailing modernism destroy the sense of Englishness that pervades this work. There is even a hint or two of folk tunes - perhaps a nod in the direction of her composition teacher Ralph Vaughan Williams.

This folk idiom really comes to the fore in the last movement. The programme notes suggest that there is suggestion of the ‘moto perpetuum’ about this music. True, but there is still the melancholy feel that has pervaded the entire work from the opening bars. And lookout for the exciting cross rhythms that cause considerable technical difficulties to the performers. The movement finishes with a few apparent reminiscences of what has gone before.

The only recording of Elizabeth Maconchy’s Quintet for Oboe & Strings (1932) is on An English Renaissance, Oboe Classics CC2009. This work is coupled with Dorothy Gow’s Oboe Quintet (1936), Arthur Bliss’s Quintet for Oboe & String Quartet (1926), Benjamin Britten’s Phantasy Quartet for Oboe & Strings (1932) E.J. Moeran’s Fantasy Quartet (1946). The oboe soloist is George Caird.