The three works recorded here span the entire range of Simpson's output to date. Both Quartets are part of two different trilogies. The first trilogy contains Quartets 1 to 3 (composed between 1951 and 1954) which seem to fall into a natural sequence. Quartets 4 to 6 date from the 1970s and were written under the direct influence of Beethoven's three Razumovsky Quartets, opus 59. The String Trio was completed in 1987 in between two of Simpson's most monumental creations, the Ninth and Tenth Symphonies.