Born into a musical family in a small industrial town in the North of England, William Walton was to become one of the most famous British composers of the 20th century. With colourful scores, including two symphonies and concertos for viola, violin and cello, his music now forms part of the essential British orchestral repertoire. Yet Walton wrote relatively little – his catalogue of chamber music contains just eight works. The Piano Quartet of 1921 (revised 1974), with its echoes of Ravel, Vaughan Williams and even Elgar, is full of youthful exuberance and vigour, in marked contrast with the emotional intensity and wistful lyricism of the String Quartet completed by Walton twenty-six years later.