University of York Music Press

'The premiere was Robert Saxton's String Quartet No.3, composed in 2009-11 and commissioned by the Southbank Centre. This also materialises out of nothing, but is the more varied work by far. In five short movements, each with their own titles, Saxton sends the music spinning out in contrasting directions - the stasis of "Winter Light", where string harmonics hang in the ether, the robust energy of "Dance", and the swirling scales of "Continuing Journey", which bring the music back to its starting point. Like Saariaho, though in his own way, Saxton makes sure his quartet is all of a piece.' And this is Andrew Clements, in the Guardian: 'It has been a long time since a major work by Robert Saxton received its first performance in London. Saxton has spent much of the last decade working on his radio opera The Wandering Jew, which was finally aired last year. His Third String Quartet, commissioned by the Southbank Centre and introduced by the Ardittis as the centrepiece of their programme, marks his return to writing for the concert hall. A 17-minute work in five movements, it sustains itself more through carefully planned tonal architecture than through striking musical ideas. There is a central scurrying scherzo flanked by a more striking pair of static slow movements, while the rather dense string polyphony and slowly rotating harmony of the opening and closing sections, respectively, recall an earlier generation of 20th-century English composers.'