The Neapolitan composer Franco Alfano was prolific and highly successful in the field of opera, but he also composed three string quartets over a period framed by the two world wars. No.1 in D major was written during the First World War and stretches the limits of the quartet medium with its quasi-orchestral vigour, tied together with a habanera rhythm. No.2 in C major in Three Linked Movements, though smaller in scale, reflects the range of Alfano’s influences, which include Russian and Eastern European music, rustic dances and French impressionism. Work on No.3 in G minor was started in 1944, a year after the death of his beloved wife, to whom Alfano pays tribute in the haunting first movement. The quartet was completed in 1945 and ends with an ebullient monothematic march finale celebrating Ancient Rome.

Violinist Elmira Darvarova is a Grammy-nominated recording artist, and an award-winning performer (2017 and 2018 Gold Medal at the Global Music Awards), the first-ever female concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera and called a ‘marvellous violinist in the Heifetz tradition’ by American Record Guide.

Darvarova and cellist Samuel Magill also appear on Alfano’s Cello Sonata and Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano which can be heard on 8570928. The Strad wrote that ‘Darvarova produces a silky-smooth, voluptuous sound ideal for the concerto’s meticulous opulence, while Magill’s husky, dark timbre matches the Cello Sonata’s yearning intensity to perfection’.