Rubbra: Symphonies No 5 & 8, Etc / Hickox, Bbc No Of Wales

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Release Date: 04/13/1999
Label: Chandos Catalog #: 9714 Spars Code: DDD
Composer: Edmund Rubbra
Performer: Susan Bickley
Conductor: Richard Hickox
Orchestra/Ensemble: BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Number of Discs: 1
Recorded in: Stereo
Length: 1 Hours 5 Mins.

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Notes & Reviews	Back to Top

Edmund Rubbra's symphonies do not yield up their secrets easily. The idiom is unadventurous, and Rubbra's relentlessly contrapuntal musical syntax lacks the sort of drama that we normally expect in a symphony. Add to that the somewhat klutzy orchestration--full of problems of balance--and the result needs a certain amount of special pleading. And yet, Rubbra was no mere bumbling English amateur. His musical architecture was first rate, his sense of timing acute, his melodic lines fluid and supple, and his music seldom bogs down rhythmically, no matter how dense it gets. In short, he had his own style, and you either like it or you don't. Like Brahms, it's very difficult music to play well, but it rewards anyone taking the time to get to know it. Richard Hickox has presided over an exceptional complete symphony cycle, of which this is the final volume. It contains what is perhaps Rubbra's most easily approachable symphony, the Fifth, along with his most successfully spiritual, the Eighth, dedicated to the French theologian Teilhard de Chardin. The Ode to the Queen is typical ceremonial twaddle, and I can't even read the opening line, "Sound forth celestial organs," without laughing out loud. No matter. This disc represents a fine conclusion to a major cycle of symphonies by a major symphonist. --David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com


Works on This Recording			Back to Top

1.	Symphony no 5 in in Bb, Op. 63 by Edmund Rubbra
	Conductor: Richard Hickox Orchestra/Ensemble: BBC National Orchestra of Wales Period: 20th Century Written: 1947-1948; England	Date of Recording: 02/1998 Venue: Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, Wales Length: 26 Minutes 44 Secs.


2.	Symphony no 8, Op. 132 "Hommage � Teilhard de Chardin" by Edmund Rubbra
	Conductor: Richard Hickox Orchestra/Ensemble: BBC National Orchestra of Wales Period: 20th Century Written: 1966-1968; England	Date of Recording: 02/1998 Venue: Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, Wales Length: 24 Minutes 20 Secs.


3.	Ode to the Queen, Op. 83 by Edmund Rubbra
	Performer: Susan Bickley (Mezzo Soprano) Conductor: Richard Hickox Orchestra/Ensemble: BBC National Orchestra of Wales Period: 20th Century Written: 1953; England	Date of Recording: 02/1998 Venue: Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, Wales Length: 13 Minutes 9 Secs. Language: English


Sound Samples				Back to Top

Symphony No. 8, Op. 132 I. Moderato
Symphony No. 8, Op. 132 II. Allegretto con brio
Symphony No. 8, Op. 132 III. Poco lento
Ode to the Queen, Op. 83 No. 1. Sound forth celestial organs
Ode to the Queen, Op. 83 No. 2. Fair as unshaded light
Ode to the Queen, Op. 83 No. 3. Yet once again, let us our measures move
Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, Op. 63 I. Adagio
Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, Op. 63 II. Allegro moderato
Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, Op. 63 III. Grave -
Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, Op. 63 IV. Allegro vivo

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