Edmund Rubbra - String Quartets (Sterling String Quartet)

Information

Composer: Edmund Rubbra

CD1:

1. String Quartet No. 1 in F minor: 1. Allegro moderato
2. String Quartet No. 1 in F minor: 2. Lento -
3. String Quartet No. 1 in F minor: 3. Vivace
4. String Quartet No. 2 in E flat major: 1. Allegro moderno
5. String Quartet No. 2 in E flat major: 2. Schertzo polimetrico (Vivace assai)
6. String Quartet No. 2 in E flat major: 3. Cavatina (Adagio tranquillo) -
7. String Quartet No. 2 in E flat major: 4. Allegro

CD2:

1. String Quartet No. 3, Op 112: 1. Largo ma molto flessibile - Allegretto -
2. String Quartet No. 3, Op 112: 2. Adagio -
3. String Quartet No. 3, Op 112: 3. Allegro leggiero
4. String Quartet No. 4, Op. 150: 1. Andante moderato, ma liberamente - Allegretto scherzando - Cantabile e grazioso
5. String Quartet No. 4, Op. 150: 2. Adagio e con molta espressione

Sterling String Quartet
Megan Pound, violin I
Rebecca Jones, violin II
John Rayson, viola
Brian Mullan, cello

Date: 1996
Label: Conifer

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Review

Edmund Rubbra’s four quartets cover an even longer period of his creative career than the symphonies: the first version of the F minor Quartet goes back to 1933, before the First Symphony, while the Fourth dates from 1977 just before the last, one-movement Eleventh. The First pays tributes to Vaughan Williams, “whose persistent interest” in the original 1933 version led to a revision of the score in 1946, while the Fourth is dedicated to a younger master of the medium, Robert Simpson. So far only the Second has been commercially recorded, first by the Griller Quartet (Decca, 11/52 – nla), secondly by the Amici (Pye, 10/67 – nla) and more recently by the English Quartet (Tremula, 12/93). When I bought it as a student the score of the First Quartet cost 3s 5d – roughly 17p! It is many years since I have actually heard it and I must confess I had forgotten how impressive a piece it is. In his essay on the chamber music in Edmund Rubbra (edited by Lewis Foreman; Triad Press: 1977) the late Harold Truscott even went so far as to call it “a key work in [Rubbra’s] output, and in the revised version of 1946, one of the greatest string quartets I know”. And writing of the Second a year or so back, MEO drew attention to “a noble melodic breadth that makes the slow Cavatina resonate in the memory for days”. The Third, written in 1963, moves with a tremendous sense of purpose, and is a work of great nobility and expressive substance, and the same holds for the elegiac Fourth.

It almost beggars belief that three of these quartets are appearing on CD for the first time, and that it has taken half a century for the First to reach the catalogue. Gratitude is in order for the enterprise of Conifer and the advocacy of the Sterling Quartet, whose playing has splendid commitment. They have evident feeling for this music. Generally speaking intonation and ensemble are very good and in the Third Quartet the artists are scrupulous in observing dynamic markings, though I would have welcomed a wider dynamic range and greater variety of tonal colour in the First. For example, the very opening of the F minor work, marked pianissimo, sounds mezzo piano and dynamic contrasts could be made more telling. Much of the blame must rest with the forward balance which does not flatter the musicians tonally. We are very much in the front row and there is a touch of rawness and insufficient tonal beauty. For example, at the fortissimo pesante passage at fig. 24 in the slow movement (track 2, 5'36''), there is no room for the sound to expand, and the overall impression is a bit unrelieved. Readers need not hold back on this count and in registering these points, I would not want to get them out of proportion. This is music of depth and eloquence and needs to resonate in the world. As Sir Adrian Boult once wrote, Rubbra has never made any concession to popularity, but “he goes on creating masterpieces, which I am convinced will survive their composer and most of those who are his contemporaries”.

-- Robert Layton, Gramophone

More reviews:
BBC Music Magazine  PERFORMANCE: **** / SOUND: ****
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2000/mar00/rubbrasq.htm
https://www.amazon.com/Rubbra-Four-String-Quartets-Edmund/dp/B0000024E7

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Edmund Rubbra (23 May 1901 – 14 February 1986) was a British composer. He composed both instrumental and vocal works for soloists, chamber groups and full choruses and orchestras. He was greatly esteemed by fellow musicians and was at the peak of his fame in the mid-20th century. The most famous of his pieces are his eleven symphonies. Jis output as a whole is less celebrated today than would have been expected from its sheer merit and from his early popularity. As an author, Rubbra wrote numerous articles during his lifetime, about both his own music and that of others.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Rubbra

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