Rubbra: Festival Overture & Symphonies Nos. 2 & 7

Album review

The rigorously intellectual, vigorously contrapuntal, brilliantly colorful, and relentlessly spiritual symphonies of Edmund Rubbra are not perhaps the first thing everybody thinks of when they think of the typical twentieth century English symphony. Not for Elgar's heart-on-the-sleeve nobility or Vaughan Williams' lump-in-the-throat sentimentality: Rubbra was strict, severe, and straight to the point -- the point being that above all, Rubbra's symphonies were about head-in-the-sky sublimity. Rubbra always has his eye on eternity, always aims to achieve the highest possible level of contrapuntal rapture. And as these two superlative Lyrita recordings show, Rubbra more often than not hits his mark. Vernon Handley with the New Philharmonia in the 1978 Second and Adrian Boult with the London Philharmonic in the 1970 Seventh both know the full measure of Rubbra's music, know its breadth and depth and heights, and can articulate its intensities and immensities in performances of power and commitment. While not easy listening like Elgar or Vaughan Williams -- imagine a leaner, lighter, modernist Bruckner and you have somewhat of an idea of what to expect -- Rubbra should be heard by anyone with an interest in the twentieth century English symphony.

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