Champions of British music, share their latest discovery in chamber music

In a musical journey from earliest dawn to deepest night, the Villiers Quartet, renowned as champions of British music, share their latest discovery in chamber music by Ailsa Dixon (1932-2017), recently recorded for the Resonus Classics label. Their recital includes the concert premiere of Dixon's 'lost' Scherzo, written in 1955, from a manuscript recently discovered in the attic of her former home. It also features the first performance in 30 years of Sohrab and Rustum, inspired by Matthew Arnold's poem based on a Persian epic, and Dixon's songs for soprano and string quartet, The Spirit of Love, sung by Lucy Cox. When the songs were premiered posthumously, the British Music Society's reviewer wrote of 'a feeling that something special had just occured'; a recent performance at the Nottingham Chamber Music Festival was hailed as 'a stunning find - rarely have I heard a new piece which has moved me so deeply'.