Recording Review
Edmund Rubbra
Violin Concerto; Improvisation for Violin and Orchestra, Improvisations on Virginal Pieces by Giles Farnaby
Krysia Osostowicz piano
Ulster Orchestra
Takuo Yuasa conductor
Naxos 8.557591
November 2005, Gramophone
by Andrew Achenbach
Osostowicz has the measure of Rubbra’s rewarding inspiration
The essence of this new recording of Rubbra’s Violin Concerto is both welcome and timely, given that previous versions from Carl Pini and Tasmin Little – Unicorn-Kanchana (1/87) and Conifer Classics (10/94) respectively – are languishing in the vaults. Composed in1959, it’s one of Rubbra’s most compelling large-scale offerings, comprising a masterly opening Allegro that finds lyrical intensity and organic growth in blissful accord, a ravishing central Poema (whose gentle rapture harks back to the Canto slow movement of the Sixth Symphony from 1954) and a wonderfully earthy finale, full of bracing vigour and rhythmic élan. The 1956 Improvisation for violin and orchestra also repays close inspection, a 12-and-a-half-minute essay of notable economy of thought and expressive variety that salvages material from an earlier Fantasia for violin and orchestra from the mid-1930s.
Not only is Krysia Osostowicz thoroughly steeped in the idiom (as a solo performer, leader of the Dante Quartet and member of the Endymion Ensemble, she has contributed with great distinction to Dutton Epoch’s invaluable Rubbra series) but she plays with great spirit and beauty of tone and is unfazed by any technical hurdles. No grumbles with the sensitive reading of the Improvisation, in which Osostowicz generates a stimulating rapport with Takuo Yuasa and the Ulster Orchestra. However, in the Concerto I would have preferred a touch less reserve and more in the way of songful joy from her collaborators – not to mention a greater sense of impetus in the first movement. Explicit, if slightly clinical sound.
Fortunately, the 1946 Improvisations on Virginal Pieces by Giles Farnaby show conductor and orchestra in more spontaneous, personable form, though perhaps Hans-Hubert Schönzeler’s 1976 world première recording with the Bournemouth Sinfonietta conveys that crucial bit extra grace and poignancy. It’s a most beguiling, concise score.
While I hope that Sony/BMG will get round to reissuing the authoritative Little/RPO/Handley account of the Concerto, this remains a very likeable and useful disc overall.
Friday 21 October 2005, The Guardian
by Andrew Clements
*** (Naxos)
The 1959 Violin Concerto is one of Edmund Rubbra’s most rigorous works. In three substantial movements built around a rhapsodic central Poema, it is framed by a tight sonata form and rustic, dance-like finale. The main influence on Rubbra’s unflashy, unfashionable music is often cited as being the polyphonic music of the 16th and 17th centuries, but in his orchestral writing here – dark-hued, against which the silvery violin line stands in sharp relief – there are hints of early 20th-century models, especially that of Hindemith. Krysia Osostowicz’s solo playing has the right quiet eloquence for this understated music, and she’s equally at home in the single-movement Improvisation for Violin and Orchestra, composed three years earlier.
Online review (David’s Review Corner) October 2005 – carried on the Naxos website
Why do we not hear Rubbra’s Violin Concerto as part of every major soloist’s repertoire? That is the enigma that surrounds his whole output. Born in 1901, Edmund Rubbra was a highly gifted pupil of Holst, and much influenced by Ireland and Bax, the initial critical acclaim of his output never converted into a lasting presence on the concert platform. The concerto is a score that can stand among the great violin compositions of the 20th century, an English version of the Prokofiev concertos springing to mind. The two composers share a passion for sending the violin flying on high, as if a bird were singing to an orchestral accompaniment. It could never enjoy a more passionate performer than Krysia Osostowicz, her spotless intonation in the upper stratospheres matched by the silvery quality of her playing in the central Poema, a movement that here grows to an impassioned central point. The finale is full of action and calls on the soloist for a display of glittering brilliance.
The best known of Rubbra’s works, the Farnaby improvisations, is a lightweight and highly pleasurable modern pastiche on music by the 16th century composer, Rubbra working much in the mode of Vaughan Williams. I had never heard the Opus 89 Improvisation before and it may well be its first recording. A rhapsodic score for violin and orchestra it appears to have been Rubbra’s first thoughts on a violin concerto. These are first class performances in every way, and are offered in exemplary sound. At this very low price I hope it will spark a revival in Rubbra’s fortunes and I fervently commend it to anyone even remotely interested in 20th century music.
October 2005, MusicWeb-International.com
by Rob Barnett
Rubbra has rather a severe reputation and, make no mistake, there is some justification for this. That justification is down to elements quite different however from those establishing the severity of serious contemporaries such as Alan Bush and Alan Rawsthorne. While Rubbra found little musical attraction in frivolity yet he joys in fly-away delight and there is of course towering grandeur and majesty in these pages.
The disc opens with the violin Improvisation in which Osostowicz is the passionate pilgrim. The bewitching and sweetly insinuating solo line leads us through a dark forest. Without producing a clearly delineated melody the effect remains melodic rising to passionate statement and falling back to the mesmerising yet unassertive soliloquising that opened this single movement work. In emotional schema the piece parallels an even more impressive work - the nocturnal and darkly rhapsodic Soliloquy for cello and orchestra of which we now have recordings by Dupré (Cello Classics), Rohan de Saram (Lyrita) and best of all, though the most difficult to find, Raphael Sommer on BBC Radio Classics.
This is the first recording of the Improvisation on CD although there was a Louisville LP in which Paul Kling was the soloist. That is a significant recording because the artists commissioned the work. There is some hope that this recording will reappear on Matt Walters’ First Edition label. Would that someone had recorded Andrew Watkinson’s fine 1981 broadcast with the BBC Concerto Orchestra conducted by Richard Hickox.
As an entr’acte of sorts we have the Farnaby Improvisations. I confess this is not the sort of Rubbra I favour. There is about it too much of pressed flowers and a precious contrived ‘olde worlde’ flavour. However in His Dreame Rubbra probes deeper while the jackanapes jollity of His Humour carries the seeds of the playful ring-dance collana musicale we hear in the concertos for viola and piano.
The Farnaby resurrections have been recorded before and can be heard, not as well recorded, and not quite as well pointed as here. The first CD recording was by Hans-Hubert Schönzeler with the Bournemouth Sinfonietta in 1976 (first issued on LP). Its rather miserly CD incarnation comes on Chandos CHAN 6599 playing for 39:34. There the ‘short commons’ coupling - perfectly adequate for LP of course - was A Tribute and the Tenth Symphony.
The Violin Concerto has the same dark concentration as the Improvisation. Hearing the two side by side, the Improvisation sounds like a concerto movement – Rubbra limbering up for the concerto that he was to write four years later. It has become a commonplace but the Violin Concerto has little or no surface glamour and the little burst of xylophone in the finale is all the more vibrant for its surprising presence. Again the violin solo is in what seems almost personal communion tracking through both troubled and untroubled inscapes. The recording is generously clear and has notable detailing and impact. This can be heard in the clear differentiation of the gruffly threatening brass at the end of the first movement.
The Violin Concerto was premièred in 1960 by Endré Wolf with the BBCSO conducted by Rudolf Schwarz.
There are two competing versions of the Violin Concerto although both have been deleted for almost a decade now. The first on the scene was on Unicorn played by Carl Pini with David Measham conducting the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (DKP(CD)9056) and recorded on 6 March 1985. The coupling was the Ireland Piano Concerto played by Geoffrey Tozer who was later to make his mark with Chandos's Medtner series.
In 1994 came the short-lived Conifer CDCF225 which coupled the concertos for violin and viola. The soloist was the then little known Tasmin Little and the conductor was Vernon Handley with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
While there is little to choose between the timings of these three versions in the final passionate flight of the allegro giocoso (5:12 Osostowicz; 5:13 Pini; 4:54 Little) the monolithic first movement differs widely: 14:36 Osostowicz; 12:38 Pini; 13:28 Little. The sense of momentum and movement is inspirational in the Pini but his instrument sounds noticeably nasal and vinegary by comparison with that of Osostowicz, Handley and Little on Unicorn are also propulsive and project the music strongly. Little’s tone is similar to that of Osostowicz although Osostowicz uses a shading of vibrato.
This Naxos disc is a fine Rubbra coupling - especially important to those exploring Rubbra. It’s at bargain price and introduces the passionate Improvisation. In an ideal world I would prefer the Tasmin Little; the forwardness and urgent projection of Little and Handley are irresistible. However it’s all rather academic since neither the Conifer nor the Unicorn are currently available.
This is therefore a logical, fine and inexpensive Rubbra coupling that will strongly reward the serious listener.