Edward Gregson is a composer of international standing whose music has been performed, broadcast, and commercially recorded worldwide. Gregson is renowned for his concertos and music for band, but his chamber music reveals a more enquiring voice. In recent years these works have been enriched with greater expressive and emotional depth, ranging here from youthful impressionism to the fearsome virtuosity of Triptych, a competition test piece. Gregson’s First String Quartet was acclaimed by one critic as ‘an extraordinary work, both gritty and serene’, while the evocative colours of the Second are framed by the gentle lilt of a Siciliana.

Naxos have been focusing on Edward Gregson’s chamber works such as the Instrumental Music (8574224) in which he ‘is at his most playful’ (BBC Music Magazine), and his Complete Music for Solo Piano (8574222). All of the string quartets on this recording by the Navarra String Quartet are recent works or recent re-workings of older pieces, and this is yet another attractively rich resource of world premieres on disc.