Joseph Holbrooke - String Quartets; Clarinet Quintet (Rasumovsky Quartet)

Information

Composer: Joseph Holbrooke

• (01) String Quartet No. 1 'Fantasie in D minor', Op. 17b
• (04) Folsong Suite No. 2, Op. 72: 2. Song of the Bottle
• (05) Eileen Shona, for Clarinet & Strings
• (06) String Quartet No. 2 'Impressions', Op. 59a
• (08) Folksong Suite No. 1: 2. The Last Rose of Summer
• (09) Folksong Suite No. 1: 3. Mavourneen Deelish
• (10) Clarinet Quintet in G major, Op. 27

Richard Hosford, clarinet (5, 10-12)
Rasumovsky Quartet
Frances Mason, violin
Marilyn Taylor, violin
Christopher Wellington, viola
Christina Shillito, cello

Date: 2002
Label: Dutton
https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CDLX7124

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Review

Sturdily crafted, but ultimately ephemeral fare from a neglected figure

The history behind Joseph Holbrooke’s Clarinet Quintet in G certainly weaves a tangled musicological web! The work has its roots in a Horn Quintet first heard in May 1904. Within a decade, the composer had incorporated material from this piece into a pair of clarinet quintets (his Opp 15 and 27). Prior to Reginald Kell’s 1939 world première recording, Holbrooke decided to amalgamate both first movements from the two quintets with an entirely new finale. What’s more, when Jack Brymer subsequently broadcast the work, it featured a different slow movement again, subsequently published separately as Eileen Shona (track 3 on the present anthology, and a very fetching evocation it is, too). According to annotator Lewis Foreman, the version recorded here dates from 1910. It’s an appealing, if slightly garrulous creation, boasting a central Andante affetuoso of songful tenderness and well worth an occasional airing.

By contrast, the First String Quartet of 1904 (whose three movements play without a break and which was submitted for the first Cobbett Fantasy competition in 1905) leaves a curiously pallid impression; for all the solid craftsmanship on show, there’s a want of what I’d call truly distinctive invention. Both its two-movement successor from 1915 and all three chosen numbers from the two Folksong Suites (premièred in 1916-17) are rather more striking, though I can’t say the prospect of revisiting them fills me with relish.

Despite one or two untidy corners, these are committed performances from the Rasumovsky Quartet, and clarinettist Richard Hosford really shines in the Quintet. The sound is agreeable but this is a disc primarily for die-hards.

-- Andrew Achenbach, Gramophone

More reviews:
BBC Music Magazine  PERFORMANCE: **** / SOUND: ****
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Feb03/Holbrook_Quartets.htm

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Joseph Holbrooke (5 July 1878 – 5 August 1958) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He attended Royal Academy of Music, where he studied under Frederick Corder for composition and Frederick Westlake for piano. Holbrooke was a late-Romantic composer, writing in a predominantly tonal, though richly chromatic, idiom. Although he was deeply interested in promoting his music, only a small fraction of Holbrooke's large output has been recorded. The advent of the compact disc has brought a revival of interest, including records by Marco Polo, Hyperion, CPO, Dutton, Naxos and Cameo Classics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Holbrooke

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