Edmund Rubbra (1901-1986)

Started by Catison, April 09, 2007, 09:54:47 AM

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Symphonic Addict

#200
April 19, 2020, 06:42:11 PM
A new release from Hyperion's Romantic Piano Concertos series, this time the PCs by Rubbra and Bliss. These works are not that Romantic taking into account when they were written. The release is due June 26.

Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

vandermolen

#201
April 19, 2020, 10:36:41 PM
Quote from: Symphonic Addict on April 19, 2020, 06:42:11 PM
A new release from Hyperion's Romantic Piano Concertos series, this time the PCs by Rubbra and Bliss. These works are not that Romantic taking into account when they were written. The release is due June 26.


How interesting! Two fine works and, as you suggest, quite 'modern' for that series. The Bliss is a particular favourite of mine, especially the climax of the opening movement but the Rubbra has a poetic quality to it which is very appealing. This will go on my birthday list I think! Thanks for posting it Cesar.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Symphonic Addict

#202
April 20, 2020, 02:51:42 PM
Quote from: vandermolen on April 19, 2020, 10:36:41 PM
How interesting! Two fine works and, as you suggest, quite 'modern' for that series. The Bliss is a particular favourite of mine, especially the climax of the opening movement but the Rubbra has a poetic quality to it which is very appealing. This will go on my birthday list I think! Thanks for posting it Cesar.

Is your birthday in June, Jeffrey? If so, mine too. Coincidence.  :)
Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

vandermolen

#203
April 20, 2020, 09:35:28 PM
Quote from: Symphonic Addict on April 20, 2020, 02:51:42 PM
Is your birthday in June, Jeffrey? If so, mine too. Coincidence.  :)
OT

Yes on the 22nd (Cancer the Crab) when is your's Cesar?
Must explain the similarity of our musical tastes.
;D
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Symphonic Addict

#204
April 21, 2020, 12:43:10 PM
Quote from: vandermolen on April 20, 2020, 09:35:28 PM
OT

Yes on the 22nd (Cancer the Crab) when is your's Cesar?
Must explain the similarity of our musical tastes.
;D

Oh, very good, Jeffrey! Mine is on June 5th (Gemini). Definitely it helps to explain your last sentence.  ;)
Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

vandermolen

#205
April 21, 2020, 01:15:36 PM
Quote from: Symphonic Addict on April 21, 2020, 12:43:10 PM
Oh, very good, Jeffrey! Mine is on June 5th (Gemini). Definitely it helps to explain your last sentence.  ;)
Most certainly Cesar - there can be no other explanation for it.
;)
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Christo

#206
April 22, 2020, 12:06:15 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on April 20, 2020, 09:35:28 PM
OT

Yes on the 22nd (Cancer the Crab) when is your's Cesar?
Must explain the similarity of our musical tastes.
;D
We, Sagittarii, don't believe in such fables!  8)
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

vandermolen

#207
April 22, 2020, 05:36:30 AM
Quote from: Christo on April 22, 2020, 12:06:15 AM
We, Sagittarii, don't believe in such fables!  8)
8)
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

vandermolen

#208
November 02, 2021, 11:21:37 PM
From WAYLTN thread - I thought that Edmund deserved a bump up!
Symphony No.4
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

foxandpeng

#209
March 02, 2022, 06:30:30 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on November 02, 2021, 11:21:37 PM
From WAYLTN thread - I thought that Edmund deserved a bump up!
Symphony No.4


I am listening to this recording of Symphonies 3 & 4, now. I love Rubbra's work, and #3 has long been my favourite symphony by him.
"A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people ... then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbour — such is my idea of happiness"

Tolstoy

vandermolen

#210
March 02, 2022, 09:02:07 AM
Quote from: foxandpeng on March 02, 2022, 06:30:30 AM
I am listening to this recording of Symphonies 3 & 4, now. I love Rubbra's work, and #3 has long been my favourite symphony by him.
Interesting Danny - I hardly know that one as I tend to listen to No.3 so I must listen again to No.3.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

kyjo

#211
January 03, 2023, 06:36:19 PM
Recently I've been blown away by Rubbra's Seventh Symphony. Of course, the man wrote several fine works, but this one stands out to me as his undoubted masterpiece. It's a tremendously cogent, emotionally varied, and beautifully orchestrated work. The first movement has a wonderful freshness and naturalness to it, rather Sibelian in its woodwind writing. The brilliant, almost Holstian scherzo is Rubbra at his most outgoing and extroverted, and is not devoid of darker, more epic moments. The finale, the most substantial movement, is a massive passacaglia in the tradition of Brahms 4, though it doesn't sound particularly like Brahms of course. It's a suitably powerful and eloquent conclusion to a work which could be counted amongst the great 20th century symphonies: https://youtu.be/kaYEyurWEFY
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

Mapman

#212
January 03, 2023, 07:01:54 PM
Quote from: kyjo on January 03, 2023, 06:36:19 PMRecently I've been blown away by Rubbra's Seventh Symphony. Of course, the man wrote several fine works, but this one stands out to me as his undoubted masterpiece. It's a tremendously cogent, emotionally varied, and beautifully orchestrated work. The first movement has a wonderful freshness and naturalness to it, rather Sibelian in its woodwind writing. The brilliant, almost Holstian scherzo is Rubbra at his most outgoing and extroverted, and is not devoid of darker, more epic moments. The finale, the most substantial movement, is a massive passacaglia in the tradition of Brahms 4, though it doesn't sound particularly like Brahms of course. It's a suitably powerful and eloquent conclusion to a work which could be counted amongst the great 20th century symphonies: https://youtu.be/kaYEyurWEFY

Of course that's one of the symphonies I don't own yet. It sounds very interesting!

vandermolen

#213
January 03, 2023, 10:27:38 PM
Quote from: kyjo on January 03, 2023, 06:36:19 PMRecently I've been blown away by Rubbra's Seventh Symphony. Of course, the man wrote several fine works, but this one stands out to me as his undoubted masterpiece. It's a tremendously cogent, emotionally varied, and beautifully orchestrated work. The first movement has a wonderful freshness and naturalness to it, rather Sibelian in its woodwind writing. The brilliant, almost Holstian scherzo is Rubbra at his most outgoing and extroverted, and is not devoid of darker, more epic moments. The finale, the most substantial movement, is a massive passacaglia in the tradition of Brahms 4, though it doesn't sound particularly like Brahms of course. It's a suitably powerful and eloquent conclusion to a work which could be counted amongst the great 20th century symphonies: https://youtu.be/kaYEyurWEFY
The Seventh is very fine with most of the emotional weight carried in the last movement. Boult's interpretation is my favourite - a wonderfully reflective version.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

calyptorhynchus

#214
January 03, 2023, 11:11:06 PM
Ha, the Seventh, my favourite too. Stephen Banfield suggests that Rubbra wrote it as an elegy for Finzi.

Anyway, one day many years ago I was listening to the finale and my wife entered the room, listened and said (meaning to criticise): 'This is a dirge, isn't it?'

I replied, 'yes, yes it is!'.
'Many men are melancholy by hearing music, but it is a pleasing melancholy that it causeth.' Robert Burton

aukhawk

#215
January 04, 2023, 08:08:59 AM


 :)

relm1

#216
January 04, 2023, 04:17:02 PM
Quote from: aukhawk on January 04, 2023, 08:08:59 AM

 :)

That is this performance, right?

vandermolen

#217
January 04, 2023, 10:32:05 PM
Quote from: relm1 on January 04, 2023, 04:17:02 PMThat is this performance, right?

Yes, that's my favourite, conducted by Boult. Hickox is good too.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

vandermolen

#218
January 04, 2023, 10:37:14 PM
Quote from: calyptorhynchus on January 03, 2023, 11:11:06 PMHa, the Seventh, my favourite too. Stephen Banfield suggests that Rubbra wrote it as an elegy for Finzi.

Anyway, one day many years ago I was listening to the finale and my wife entered the room, listened and said (meaning to criticise): 'This is a dirge, isn't it?'

I replied, 'yes, yes it is!'.
Didn't know about the Finzi connection - interesting. Vaughan Williams apparently said (to his wife Ursula) that he was 'burying his old comrades' in his 9th Symphony, which was partly composed at Finzi's house, not long after Finzi's death.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

kyjo

#219
January 05, 2023, 05:44:58 AM Last Edit: January 05, 2023, 08:41:32 AM by kyjo
Quote from: calyptorhynchus on January 03, 2023, 11:11:06 PMHa, the Seventh, my favourite too. Stephen Banfield suggests that Rubbra wrote it as an elegy for Finzi.

Anyway, one day many years ago I was listening to the finale and my wife entered the room, listened and said (meaning to criticise): 'This is a dirge, isn't it?'

I replied, 'yes, yes it is!'.

Thanks for that info - the possible Finzi connection makes the Rubbra symphony even more poignant. Also worth noting is that the 7th Symphony follows an almost "lightness to dark" emotional trajectory which is quite moving. But, as usual with Rubbra, emotional states are constantly fluid and never clear-cut.
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff
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