Composer and novelist, Anthony Burgess, was a unique creative artist whose dual mastery of music and literature resulted in a career strewn with an output of remarkable diversity. Burgess came into contact with the Aïghetta Guitar Quartet while living in Monte Carlo in 1986, and the sublime arrangements and original works in this recording were all composed for this ensemble. The three guitar quartets range from the well-crafted First Quartet intended as a homage to Ravel, while the Second and Third Quartets explore virtuoso technique alongside adventurous and at times haunting harmonies and polytonality.

The wider public knows Anthony Burgess as the author of novels such as A Clockwork Orange, but few are aware of him as a composer of some distinction. With only a very small number of recordings of his music available, we have been working on raising his profile with orchestral works released on Naxos 8573472 which was well received by The International Anthony Burgess Foundation: ‘the recording is beautifully executed. The choice of pieces provides a larger picture of Burgess the composer’. His cycle of 24 Preludes and Fugues, The Bad-Tempered Electronic Keyboard, is also available on Grand Piano GP773.